by Saxon Andrew
• • •
Julie popped the storage element into her console and she heard a song start playing. She listened to it and then played it again. “Jennie, who’s singing this?”
“It’s a music group called the Vamps. A female singer named Demi is singing with them.”
“Why do you think Chad gave me this?”
“Perhaps you need look no further than the title.”
“Somebody to You?”
It appears he’s sending you a message of sorts. Are you interested?”
“I don’t have any room in my life for romance or relationships.”
“The same can be said for him.”
Julie smiled, “Yeah, I guess it can.”
“He included fifty other songs on the flip side of the element.”
“Let’s hear them.” The songs started playing and after hearing several Julie decided that Chad’s taste in music was extraordinary. She was tapping her feet all the way back to her fleet where a huge celebration erupted. She realized she was back where she belonged. This was home.
• • •
The Welken Royal looked at the Myot Supreme Leader on his monitor, “I heard the Sentinel announce that the Johan have taken possession of one of your major planets. How could that possibly happen?”
“It appears the Johan are now in possession of ships that are invisible to our scanners.”
“WHAT?!”
“One of their battleships managed to move in close to my planet and nuke a city.”
“You had no warning!?”
“No, absolutely none.”
“Even if your scanners can’t detect it, you should have been able to visually see it moving in.”
“It stayed in the shadow made by the planet. It was painted black and you know how close you have to be to see something that’s not reflecting light. It made it through to orbit.”
“I trust you took the planet back?”
“We did. But the Johan had time to steal a hundred of my most Advanced Battleships.”
The Welken stared at the Myot and after a moment said, “Please tell me you’re kidding about that?”
“I’m not. They managed to jump away.”
“Why didn’t you follow their skip trace and retake them?”
“The Johan ship that nuked the city was still at the planet when my war fleet arrived. It contacted the Fleet Drang and told him that if he attempted to follow the ships the Johan would have a ship come to this planet and nuke a city. He said that the first order would be for my soldiers to execute me and every member of my family. My dynasty would end if that happened. He further stated that if any of the Johan ships are followed in the future, they would come and nuke my palace. He insulted me further by saying that if I didn’t remove my warships from around his new possession, he would come and nuke my palace. His last threat was that if his ship was fired on as it left orbit, the Johan would attack a hundred of my planets.”
“They haven’t attacked any of my planets.”
“If you leave your warships at that primitive planet much longer, they will.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ve removed my ships from that planet and I’ve moved enough ships here to make sure if they attempt to approach my planet that we will see them. I would recommend you do the same.”
“But that would take half my fleet to visually cover every possible approach.”
“More like sixty percent.”
“This is not acceptable!”
“Tell me what I can do about it. Even if they don’t come here, they can go after other planets in my empire. I don’t have enough ships to visually protect all of them.”
“I’ll get back to you. I need to move some ships.”
“Yes…you do.” The Myot Ruler looked at the dark monitor and shook his head. What could be done about this new balance of power? He shook his head and decided nothing…for the moment. But something would happen and he’d have to be ready to pounce. In the meantime, the Industrial Planets were going to have to get busy manufacturing warships.
• • •
The Leadership Team was back on the beach and they were celebrating the return of the women members. Salud lifted a margarita and said, “Here’s to the end of hunger.” Everyone raised a drink and cheered.
Lukas looked at Salud, “You didn’t encounter any difficulties?”
“Other than an assassination attempt every three or four days, it went pretty smoothly.”
“You didn’t tell me about that?”
“It was to be expected as powerful humans watched their loss of power over the people they controlled. The personal force fields kept us safe.”
Kathy smiled, “I’ve missed being here.” She snuggled up to Stoney, “It’s good to be home.” Stoney pulled her close.
Sarah looked around, “Anything happen while we were gone?”
Jinks nodded, “We’ve divided our Attack Pods into five fleets.”
Salud looked at him, “Who is commanding them?”
“Chad, Julie, John, Sergy, and Indra.”
“Who are Sergy and Indra?”
Sergy is a former Soviet Naval officer. Indra is the daughter of a rich Indian businessman.”
“Why haven’t I heard anything about them?”
“Salud, they were Julie and John’s second-in-commands.”
“Oh. I would think I would have heard something.”
“When you left, we had ten thousand pods. That number is now over a hundred and fifty thousand.”
“What?”
“The huge facility on Barbados is really churning out ships.”
“Where are the pilots coming from?”
Stoney smiled, “From all over the planet. My Second-in-Command is from China and I’m hoping to turn over the planet defense pods to him shortly.”
Sarah looked at Stoney, “Defense Pods?”
“The facility here has been converted to make them. They’re larger than the attack pods and have eight disruptors on them to hit missiles. They can also be linked by computer to make their disruptors work together.”
Salud looked at Lukas, “Wouldn’t they be a better ship to use to attack than the current pods?”
“Not really. They’re much larger and aren’t as nimble as the small Attack Pods. They can deliver an incredible salvo at any missiles or ships that approach the planet but they’re too slow to be able to avoid the enemies’ disruptors in a space battle out in open space. With the planet behind them, they’ll be tough for an invading fleet to handle.”
“I would think you’d build heavily armed space stations above the planet to handle the defense.”
Lukas shook his head, “That’s what most of the members of the Fellowship have done. But it requires huge numbers of them to defend a planet because they can’t be easily moved. Every possible avenue to the planet has to be covered by them.”
Trevor smiled, “You can have more disruptors on five thousand ships than you could on the surface of a space station and we can move the ships wherever the planet is attacked. It also allows us to move the ships away from the planet to start attacking any enemy force long before the space stations could fire on them.”
Salud shook her head, “Where are all the ships? If we have that many, they aren’t all in orbit.”
Jinks smiled, “I made a suggestion and everyone thought it was worth doing.” The three women looked at him. “I thought having to take an hour to get our ships off Earth to the Gravity Limit was just too long. I suggested building a base on the moon.”
Salud looked at Lukas, “But half the time the moon is on the sun side of Earth away from the routes the aliens would take to get here.”
“Yes, but launching from the moon they could move outside the Gravity Limit in three minutes and skip around the planet to the other side. They’d arrive long before a ship could from the planet’s surface. Remember that our probes in the void will give us ten minutes warning before an enemy ar
rives. Our defense would be in place before they arrived.”
“It didn’t take you long to build that base.”
Jinks looked at Sarah, “No, converter technology has changed building processes dramatically. It only took a month to complete the buildings and the small converters converted the rubble on the moon’s surface to oxygen and other gasses needed for a breathable atmosphere inside the new structures. The Converters are currently building tunnels between the three main facilities.”
Salud shook her head, “You know they’ll be a target for any invader.”
Stoney nodded, “There are ten reactors powering the force fields around each base. There are also larger disruptors defending them.”
Salud tilted her head to the left, “How much larger?”
Trevor smiled, “The barrels on them are a hundred yards long.” Salud shook her head. “Could we use them on Earth?”
Stoney shook his head, “If you’re willing to destroy the atmosphere they pass through you could. There isn’t any atmosphere on the moon to reduce their power.”
Lukas said, “We’re also building an underground major ship building complex on the moon as well.”
“Why?”
“Because there are many nations here that don’t like our presence on the island. The main training and simulator facilities will remain here on the island.”
“Are we moving to the moon?” Lukas looked at Salud and took a deep breath. She shook her head, “We are, aren’t we?”
“Eventually, we will.”
“But it’s our presence here that keeps the really nasty people in check.”
“That will only continue until they determine that we won’t interfere with them.” Salud opened her mouth and Lukas quickly said, “Mankind must find a way to live in peace.”
“And if we can’t.”
“Then we deserve what we get.”
“But…”
“Love, they will look at the moon overhead and see a place where people of all nationalities are living together in peace and harmony. We will continue to broadcast our views on humans being one species whose destiny is to make the planet the best place to live and prosper. They will long for what we have. The best and brightest will continue to be accepted into our pilots’ ranks.”
“Do you think that is going to be enough?”
“Forcing it on them will only make them resist. They have to find their way on their own. However, the mechanism of withholding food and clothing will no longer work. We’re going to start offering free shelter to the planet next.”
Salud looked up at the quarter moon shining in the afternoon sky and sighed, “I guess the moon is ONE WORLD as well.”
Lukas smiled, “That is what we intend to make it. Like this beach, it has an incredible view.”
Jinks looked at Lukas and had a troubling thought. If all of Earth’s forces were on the moon, an attacker would focus on it and not the planet. Was this the real reason why he agreed to moving? He thought about the Fellowship and knew they would still go after the planet even if all the defensive forces were on the moon; that’s how they took possession of a planet. He decided that he was probably wrong…but…what if the attacker wasn’t coming from the Fellowship?
Something was working on the edge of his consciousness but he couldn’t get it out. He wondered why Lukas had the buildings on the moon constructed so quickly. There had to be a reason he was missing. He looked at Lukas and saw him staring back at him. Lukas took a breath and looked away. Something was going on but he couldn’t see what it could possibly be.
“Jinks.”
Sarah startled him. “Yes Love.”
“I want to learn to fly an Attack Pod.”
“I would prefer you learn how to fly a Defense Pod.”
“Why?”
“They are the last line between an invader and the Earth. Lukas has issued new rules about the members of the Leadership Team participating in combat. Fighting with the Defense Pods is allowed.”
“Does that include you?”
“I will be out commanding my five fleets of Attack Pods, but my squadron will not be allowed to participate in combat operations.”
“Squadron?”
“Lukas insists that Stoney and I will have a bodyguard of two hundred ships. We can send them into battle if forced but we are ordered to stay out of it.”
Sarah took his hand, “I imagine you hate that?”
“I do but Lukas tricked me into doing it.”
“How?”
“He told me he was going to take command of one of the fleets and lead it into battle. I told him he was crazy and that we couldn’t afford to lose him. I told him I’d resign if he insisted on doing it.”
Sarah smiled, “I imagine at that point he told you he’d agree to your demands but that you would follow the same directives. You and Stoney are also too important to lose.”
“Something like that.”
Sarah looked at Lukas talking to Amanda, “He’s really remarkable.”
Jinks shook his head, “If he chose to, he could become Earth’s ruler. I really wish he would.” Sarah smiled and Jinks said, “What?”
“Let me see if I can guess what he said when you mentioned it to him.” Jinks nodded. “He told you that he wouldn’t live forever and the one that took his place might not be as good.”
Jinks shook his head, “How did you know that?”
“Because he takes the long view on everything he does. I’m thankful he does.” Jinks stared at Sarah and suddenly, the thing escaping his conscious broke through. He knew what was going on. He looked at Lukas and prayed he was wrong but the clues were there if you took the long view. What was really frightening was that it wasn’t Lukas that was doing it. “What’s wrong?”
Jinks shook his head, “Nothing, Darling; there’s just a lot going on.”
Sarah wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him, “It’s really good to be back home.” Jinks smiled and kissed her. He wished fervently that he could talk openly with Lukas but this new realization made him see that just couldn’t happen.
Three months later when Lukas ordered the bases on the moon covered in surface soil, dust, and rocks, he knew he was right. The three huge facilities were now invisible. The disruptors and force field emitters were placed in non-magnetic metals and could be raised above the moon’s surface if they were needed. The construction below ground took on a frenzy as launch tunnels for the Pods were built and linked by interconnecting tunnels that had high speed sleds built to move Pilots to their ships.
Salud complained that the great view Lukas promised was gone. He told her she could go out on the surface and see it any time she wanted. She stared at him and realized something was going on. She dropped the argument. She realized that time was growing short on what he saw coming. She wished she could discuss it with him.
Chapter Eight
The stalemate in the Fellowship continued for two years. The Myot and Welken were unable to act without the fear of the Johan blasting their main planets and taking possession. The numbers of warships had grown exponentially but there still weren’t enough to defend all the Myot and Welken planets from the invisible Johan Battleships. They discovered that if they did anything to irritate the new Johan Ruler, they’d lose all the battleships above one of their planets. The Fellowship was at a forced peace that none of them liked. The stalemate was broken by a sheer accident.
A Welken commercial vessel was moving through the void and had taken a short route that moved outside the edge of the galaxy. “What is that?”
“Commander, it appears to be a skip trace.”
“What is it doing out here?”
“I have no idea.”
The Ship’s Commander thought for a moment and said, “Follow it.” The Welken vessel turned and followed the trace. It arrived where the trace ended and entered normal space three thousand miles out from a planet. “What is this!?”
“It appears it’s a Johan Planet. Battl
eships are moving toward us.”
“SEND THE COORDINATES TO THE FLEET ROYAL!!! NOW!!”
The communications began sending the coordinates along with images of the planet. The commercial vessel barely got the message out as it was blasted into vapor by a giant Myot Battleship that had been captured by the Johan. The Johan home world had been found.
• • •
“I have the location of the Johan home world.”
“What?!”
“It was found by a commercial ship, of all things. My staff has analyzed the images and they confirm that it must be their home world.”
“How does this change things?”
The Welken Supreme Royal looked at the Myot Ruler, “I know you don’t want to do it but now is the time to see if the Johan will enter into an agreement with us.”
“I’d rather send a fleet of ships and take possession of the planet.”
“Do you know if your planet doesn’t have one of their ships close by waiting to blast your palace? As soon as our ships show up, they’ll attack and order our ships away from their home world.”
The Myot shook his head, “They won’t have to obey.”
“They will if you issue the order. The Johan aren’t dumb. They’ll nuke a city on your planet and then move above your palace. Are you willing to die to remove them?”
“They would have to have a ship here.”
“We’ve seen twenty of them near my planet over the last six months.”
“WHAT!?”
“They blocked out distant stars on our visual scanners. We tried to go after them but only managed to kill one. They’re there, make no doubt about it.”
“But if we take possession of their home world, we can order their ships to leave.”
“The same thing applies; only the ships at the planet must obey. Those here won’t. I also suspect the Johan Ruler is no longer on the planet but has moved to one of his invisible battleships.”
The Myot looked at the Welken, “Perhaps we should do the same.”
“I’m already on a ship. However, if they take possession of our home world, they get all the warships around it; that’s more than half of our total inventory. They’ll order our crews to defend their new possession against us attempting to retake it. I’ve thought about this and we’re in a box that doesn’t have an easy escape. They didn’t have a reason to negotiate with us before. Now their home world is in jeopardy and the Ruler may feel compelled to give in.”