by Saxon Andrew
• • •
Ric had suggested the attacks be launched at mid-night and Tee arrived at the cutout at 11 pm. He began carrying his equipment up the ladder at eleven thirty and had the MH-R and an extra rocket at the wall within fifteen minutes. He went back down and carried the rifle up to the wall as he turned on his audio plugs…the street outside the wall was silent. At one minute before midnight, he pushed the wall open and sighted the shoulder mounted MH-R. The rocket had a two-foot-long chronide point extending out of it that would penetrate any known substance, including chronide. Once the point penetrated, the body of the hardened rocket would start generating extreme heat through the chronide point. Tee smiled, MH-R stood for Maximum Heat Rocket. He was curious about how the rocket would perform, he had never used it before tonight. Tee smiled as he sighted through the scope and counted it down mentally; at one second before midnight, he pulled the trigger on the MH-R.
The rocket left the launcher silently on its high-powered compressed air charge and hit the track in the armored wall outside the track’s interior compartment. He dropped the launcher, immediately grabbed the rife, and sighted in on the hatch located on the top of the track. Within moments, the hatch was thrown open and the first alien appeared. Tee squeezed off a shot and saw the alien flinch as it moved across the track and jumped down to the ground, where it collapsed. The dart he was using was a paralyzing dart that activated after eight seconds. He kept the scope sighted on the hatch and shot the remaining four aliens as they came out of the track as fast as they could move. He then rushed out of the wall toward the alien vehicle. He arrived to find the aliens scattered around the track and began searching for the one that shot him.
He recognized the symbol on his helmet and rolled him over. Snatching off his headcover, he looked into the alien’s paralyzed face. He sat down on his chest and glared into his faceplate, as he sneered, “I don’t see you smiling now! Let’s see how you like electricity!” Tee took a ball out of his leg pouch, pressed a small button on top of it, and forced it into the alien’s mouth under his face plate. He pulled his headcover back on, stood up, rushed to the other aliens, forcing a ball into their mouths.
He stopped at the commander of the aliens and paused. This one had saved his life. He hesitated, then put the ball back in his pouch. He rushed back over to the first alien and saw the ball activate. The alien’s body literally leapt off the ground as the ball’s electric current hit him. Tee turned and sprinted back to the wall. He remained there as the four-alien’s twisted, turned, and came off the ground with the electrical current running through them. He heard a sound overhead and slammed the wall shut. He threw the MH-R launcher into the cutout and grabbed the rocket. He rushed to the ladder and closed the cutout, as an alien attack craft moved in at high-speed overhead. He left the rocket launcher at the base of the ladder and pressed a button on an explosive charge attached to the wall. He turned and ran down the pipe expecting to be hit by a blaster bolt from the warships overhead. After thirty minutes, he slowed down. He bent over gasping for air and sat down next to the pipe’s wall. After catching his breath, he finally stood up and headed back to his lair.
• • •
The next morning, Tee tapped in to the cameras on top of the parking garage and saw the city was covered by smoke plumes rising from as far as the camera could see. My, my but the assassins had been busy the night before. He had no idea how many attacks had taken place, but the aliens must have taken a huge hit on their landing forces. A day later, he knew he had made a mistake.
The camera on top of the garage showed a small alien aircraft moving slowly over the city, obviously scanning the citizens. Who were they looking to find. He sat back and contemplated on what he had done. He sat up straight, when he realized, they were certainly searching for him. Maybe Ric as well. The alien that shot him must have been recorded by the scanner inside the tracked vehicle. That scan would have shown his face in the recording and the track probably recorded him sitting on that alien’s chest as he removed his headcover. He was stupid. The commander of the aliens would probably verify the recording after he regained control of his muscles and they had an image to chase of a known assassin.
Tee knew it was certain death if he went out in public again. His image would be in every scanner being used by the aliens. With the four he killed, that brought his total bounty to over two million credits. He could just wait out the war in his room and be rich. But…the idea of doing that didn’t appeal to him at all. The excitement of the previous night was the most exhilaration he had felt in decades. So, he couldn’t go out in public…but he had his pipes under the city and fifty more MH-R rockets. He’d just use the killing darts next time and make a fast escape. Even if he died, this was worth doing. As he watched the news broadcasts over the following days, he even began to like the news caster he promised to kill earlier. A week later, he sent a squeal message to Ric, “Did you make it?” Two weeks later, he was still waiting on a response.
• • •
The Elite Division Commander sat on his chair in the Fleet Command’s Vessel staring at the wall-monitor as the casualty reports continued to come in. The AL watched with him and said quietly, “It appears you’ve lost about eighty-percent of your troops, Commander. It also appears that the inhabitants are all out in the streets cheering their deaths.”
“I WILL MAKE THEM PAY!!” The Commander roared.
“Did you happen to notice that the locations of the former landing forces were not attacked?”
The Elite Commander leapt out of his chair and reached for his hand blaster, “YOU WILL STOP NOW!!” The former commander shouted with a raised blaster in his hand.
The Elite Commander froze, and the AL turned to the former commander, “I assume you’ve received new orders.” The Commander nodded. The AL turned to the Elite Commander, “The Central Governors have intervened and have issued directives to the Prince Royal. The pitiful few survivors of your division are being removed from the planet and will face an inquiry upon their return to their base. The recordings from their scanners will be used to determine their fate. However, your fate has been decided. Commander, if you please.” The former commander shot the Elite Division Commander in the face with his blaster. The Al turned to him, “You are now in command and will determine what is to be done next.”
The Commander turned to a crew member, “Clean up this mess!” He turned back to the AL, “This is a lost venture. There’s nothing that can be done to make a profit from this.”
“Perhaps.”
“This planet is a death trap. As soon as we land more troops, the killing will continue. Right now, all of my remaining troops on the surface of the planet are demanding to be removed and sent home.”
“I believe that you need to talk to the inhabitants in terms they understand and that includes the assassins.”
“What are you talking about?!”
The AL started telling him and, after a few minutes, the Commander started nodding. At the end he sat back in his chair, took a deep breath, and began speaking, “The Prince won’t accept this, and you know it.”
“He will if it appears he will lose a fortune in this venture,” The AL responded.
The Commander thought about it and mumbled, “This plan will require more deaths of our landing forces before he caves in.”
The Al nodded, “Unfortunately, that is true. But it does give us a way out of this mess without breaking the invasion laws.”
The Commander looked up at the Al and shrugged.
Chapter Seven
Duncan entered the bridge of Tal’s new warship, followed by two sailors carrying four chairs. He looked around and ordered, “Everyone sit down. We need to cover some information, and this is going to take some time.” Greg’s crew took the chairs and Duncan sat down with them. Duncan turned to Tal, “This new ship is very similar to your previous vessel, but its capabilities have been greatly improved. It is for all intents and purposes a gravity-ship.” Duncan
nodded toward Jan and continued, “Thanks to Jan’s new generator, the power of the vessel has been increased dramatically. However, the new gravity systems still require two reactors to power the gravity units spinning the generators. But that removes four reactors that were previously needed and allows more room for the missiles this ship will carry. You already know about the missiles’ capabilities and how they’ll be used in different situations.” The room was silent, and no one moved. Duncan hesitated and continued, “The most important change is that each of the pulse cannons have their own generator and have increased in power and range. We won’t know until we trial it, but we believe they will be able to hit the alien’s major warships from long range. The ship is also faster…much faster. The new generators will be replacing the thruster systems currently being used on our warships and the saving space from the removal of fuel and fuel lines is dramatic. I’ve included six helmets for all of you to learn your consoles and you need to get busy learning your systems. Once you compete the tutorials, Tal you can leave and start harassing the alien fleets in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I also need the callsigns for your two vessels.”
“Callsigns?” Tal asked.
“You need to name your ships; the name will be your call sign.” Tal was silent, and Duncan quickly added, “You can’t use the former name, Tal. Epy is now the name of this class of warship.”
Tal took a breath, blew it out slowly, and said, “Her name will be ShaKa.” Tal glanced at Jee and Jan, saw them smile, and then nod.
“ShaKa it is!” Duncan turned to Greg, “What about your vessel, Captain?”
Greg was thinking furiously and said out loud as he thought, “Major Warships usually use the name of a city on Earth. Smaller vessels use a famous person’s name or a feature on the planet. I think we’ll call her Blue.”
Duncan’s brow furrowed for a moment, as he asked, “Blue?”
“Yeah. You know, like the color of the oceans as seen from space; or the color of the skies above Earth.” He glanced at Jan and added, “Or the color of her eyes. Blue reminds me of home.”
Mo looked at Joe and he shrugged. Then she spoke up, “Sounds like a good name to me, short and sweet it is.”
Duncan nodded, “All right, Blue it is.”
• • •
Duncan spent the next hour discussing their mission and at the end, he asked if there were any more questions. Tal replied, “Duncan, don’t you have training consoles in the building?”
“I do; why do you ask?”
“We’re ready to go.”
“Tal, you’ve not completed the tutorials.”
Duncan, Jan wrote the tutorial for the scanning console and Jee wrote the one on the weapons console. The only way I’m going to get a feel for how the ship flies is to take it out. The pilot controls are the same as the ones that were used on Epy and I flew her for numerous hours on my last mission. We need to get moving and make an appearance in the LMC.”
Duncan sensed something was wrong but asked, “Are you sure about this?”
“I am, Duncan!”
Duncan sensed the serious tone in Tal’s voice and stood up, “Then get the ship fired up. It’s already provisioned, and the missiles will be in place in another hour. Good luck and stay in touch.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Tal replied and stood up.
Duncan looked at Greg, “If you’ll carry your chairs out, I’ll take you to the tutorial consoles.”
Duncan exited, as Greg glanced toward Tal. Tal said quietly, “Thank you for staying mum on Jee.”
“I don’t blame you for wanting him with you. He’s going to be commanding his own ship one day soon.” Tal nodded, and Greg left the ship with his crew.
• • •
An hour later, Tal moved the ShaKa across the huge facility and into the elevator. It was lifted to the surface and Tal used the joystick to lift it above the elevator; he turned the nose toward the sky. The ship leapt forward at an unbelievable velocity and Tal pulled back slightly on the joy stick, “Duncan was right, this ship is a lot faster than Epy.” He glanced at Jan, “Shut down communications.” Jan’s brow furrowed, and Tal said louder, “SHUT IT DOWN, NOW!” Jan pressed a button on her console, as the ShaKa accelerated out of Earth’s atmosphere and disappeared toward the sun.
• • •
Two hours later, Duncan was standing at the training consoles, when he saw Ka and two men exit the elevator. She started walking quickly toward Duncan and it was clear by her expression that something was wrong. She rushed up and said loudly, as she looked around, “WHERE IS JEE?”
“What’s going on?” Duncan asked.
Ka turned to one of the men and said, “TELL HIM!”
The older man turned to Duncan and started talking, “Admiral, it appears all the software we wrote for the new missiles has been erased and replaced by new programming.” Duncan’s head went back in surprise.
Ka quickly added, “TELL HIM ALL OF IT!”
The man continued, “We ran the new software through the computer and it appears that the new software far surpasses anything we’ve ever seen. The missile’s capability has been improved to where it is now capable of acting independently and its destructiveness is unimaginable. The new software is…is…incredible! The only one that could have changed it was that young whippersnapper that was working with us.”
Ka said impatiently, “That young whippersnapper is my son, Jee. Where is he?”’
Duncan stared at Ka, then glanced at Greg, who quickly looked away. Duncan turned his eyes to Ka and then started chuckling. After a moment, he started laughing. Ka’s expression turned deadly and she yelled, “THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER, ADMIRAL! HE CANNOT BE RISKED ON THIS MISSION!!!”
Duncan lifted his communicator and brought his laughter under control, “Contact General Talent.”
Duncan waited, and they heard over his communicator, “Sir, it appears General Talent has shut down his communications.”
Duncan was fighting a smile but wasn’t successful. Ka’s eyebrows came down, “What’s going on, Admiral.”
“Ka, Tal left two hours ago for the LMC and is probably outside the Milky Way by now. I wondered why he insisted on leaving so quickly but now I can see why he did.”
“You’ve got to recall him!”
“Ka, he’s not accepting calls; I imagine he suspected you’d be showing up to pull a member of his crew, thus delaying this mission. I have no way to stop him.”
“Duncan, you don’t know the importance that Jee holds for Earth and the Colonies!”
Duncan turned to the two men and asked, “Do you have a copy of that software that can be used on the massed produced missiles we’re going to build?”
James glanced at Duncan and replied, “Yes. It can be used in any future missiles we build.”
“And you have a duplicate board that other chips can be made from?”
Murdock raised his shoulders, “We do, Sir.”
Duncan turned to Ka and saw her rage building, “Before you go off and say something you’ll regret later, Ka. What do you think would happen if you pulled Jee off this mission! How do you think he’d take it?”
“He’d understand his importance to the survival of humanity, Duncan!!” Ka snapped back at him. Duncan remained silent and stared at her with his head cocked to the side. After a moment, Ka’s rage vanished, and her head fell to her chest, as she softly said, “He’d never forgive me.”
“No, he wouldn’t, Ka. I imagine that’s why he made the changes in secret.”
Ka’s communicator vibrated, and she lifted it. She spoke for a few moments and then ended the call. She took a deep breath and exhaled sharply, “It appears the targeting boards for the pulse cannons have also been changed.”
Duncan’s eyes twinkled, “For the better?”
Ka sighed, “Yes…for the better.”
“Your son has been a busy boy.”
“It appears he has, Duncan.”
Duncan’s smile returned, “He
did what he could before he left on this mission and he pulled it off in a remarkable fashion. He is driven to avenge the death of his father and he won’t be able to focus on anything else until he satisfies that craving, Ka. He’s not alone in that, the same urge also drives Tal and Jan. Even if you managed to get him back, he would be lost to you.” Ka lowered her eyes and Duncan took her in his arms, “He’s where he needs to be, Ka. Let him find his destiny.” Ka looked up at the ceiling and wished fervently that she was with him.
• • •
Tal flew the ship far outside the Milky Way and looked at Jan, “Don’t turn on communications but run a check on connecting with the new receiver. Jan acknowledged his order and turned to her console. Tal turned to Jee, “You may fire a few shots out of the pulse cannons to align the targeting program.”
“Don’t need to do it, Tal.”
“Oh? Why not?”
“I changed the pulse cannon targeting software before I changed the software in the missiles. Whatever the cannons are directed to hit, they will hit it.”
“You’ve been a busy boy, haven’t you?”
“It wasn’t easy.”
“I imagine it wasn’t.” Tal turned to Jan and she could only shrug. Tal turned back to Jee, “Are you ready to face the music?” Jee’s eyebrows came together, as Tal ordered Jan, “Activate communications.”
Jan pressed a button and said with a chuckle, “I have a priority communication from Admiral Montana.”
Tal smirked, “Put it on the wall-speaker.” Jan pressed another button and Tal spoke out, “Duncan, how’s it going?”
“I’ve just had Ka and two rather distraught software scientists show up here at the construction site.”
“Do tell!”
“Don’t be flippant, Tal. I understand now why you beat a hasty retreat.”
Tal glanced at Jee and saw a guilty expression on his face and his head lowered into his shoulders, “I knew it wouldn’t take long before Jee would be found out, Duncan. I couldn’t risk having the mission delayed training a new weapons operator.”
“Be honest, Tal. You did this for Jee and you also knew anyone that replaced him wouldn’t be near as good.”