by Saxon Andrew
“Brooks, was the explosion of that missile analyzed?” Alex asked.
“It is powerful enough to destroy the Triples or the Terminators if they don’t have their force fields activated.”
“And if they are activated?”
“It would take two hits on a Triple and fifteen on a Terminator to break through.”
Jingle interrupted, “Brooks, it took the wide beam on a Triple three seconds to blow up that missile. Would the wide beams on the Terminators be hot enough to stop them?”
“Yes.”
“Thank God for that!” Jingle remarked. “The missile defenses are still effective.”
“Not on the Triples,” Alex responded.
“What are you thinking?”
“We can’t only depend on the Triples to take on the second wave they send here.”
Jingle shook her head, “We haven’t used our missiles yet!” Jingle paused and added, “Next time, we launch our defense missiles and don’t allow them to see the ships that launched them by using their blasters. We have enough Triples to saturate them if they only send a couple of thousand warships in the second wave.” Alex glared at Jingle and her eyes narrowed, “Alex Wade Berringer, you’re more impatient to use the Terminators than Admiral Wolfe was at the meeting. The Terminators must be modified and that is going to take some time.”
“What do you mean ‘modified’?”
“The power to the force field must be increased! They can saturate our ships just as quickly as we can if they get a line of their location. The defense missiles must also be changed to withstand the blasters on those warships.”
“But they won’t see them coming?”
“But they can constantly fire their blasters around them once we launch them. It’s not likely that we can target every ship in one of their main fleets simultaneously. We have some work to do and what happens if they send a truly advanced warship and we’ve committed the Terminators. We must keep them off guard and use the Terminators only if we must!” Alex looked away and Jingle put her hand on his arm, “Be patient; your time to lead our attacks will come.”
Alex nodded and said, “Jangle, have you organized the data we’ve collected?”
“I have.”
“Send it to Admiral Glennon.”
“Sending now.”
Alex touched his panel, “Admiral Wolfe. Continue to rotate your fleets but make sure all of them can get here before another LMC attack.”
“Yes Sir.”
“And you’ve done a great job, Admiral. We made a great decision rescinding your demotion. Keep it up!” Jingle added.
Alex looked at Jingle, “What now?”
“Let’s go home and wait for Admiral Glennon to call us in for another meeting.” Alex snickered and turned the ship back toward the Milky Way.
• • •
Jingle was sitting with Dolly in the Watering Hole and saw that even in the middle of the day, it was standing room only. “You’ve got to build more space!” Jingle commented.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
Dolly released a heavy sigh, “The law that dictates only one establishment serving alcohol in a community dictates the size of the establishment. We’re already at the maximum size.”
“Couldn’t you get them to change the law?”
“The ruling council says that if we insist the law be changed then the number of businesses serving alcohol will also be modified.”
“And you’ll lose your monopoly.” Dolly nodded. “Well, this isn’t the friendly warm place it used to be.” Jingle thought a moment and asked, “What does the size restriction dictate?’
“It can’t be larger than a hundred feet wide and eighty feet deep.”
“How high can it be?”
Dolly hesitated, “I don’t think they included anything about height of the structure.”
“There’s your answer, Dolly; add another floor.” Dolly’s eyes narrowed and Jingle added, “Add three floors and sell memberships to the top floor which will insure it will never be overcrowded. If you set a limit on the number of memberships for the top floor, you can name your price and get it.” Jingle paused and added, “I do hope the regulars won’t have to pay for it.”
Dolly smiled and looked down the bar, “HEY JOESEN! GET OVER HERE!!” Joesen walked over and two weeks later, construction began.
The Ruling Council tried to protest but found that there was no restriction on the height of businesses serving alcohol. And the law was written such that the business and the government would have to agree to any changes in the law. Joesen decided that three floors wouldn’t do it. The Watering Hole grew to seven floors with high speed elevators to move the customers. One floor was dedicated to a dance floor and two others were five-star restaurants.
The top floor was amazing. The chairs were capable of giving massages and the views outside the rotating floor were amazing. Construction was done at an incredible speed and in less than eight months, the Watering Hole became the focal point of night life in Berringer.
• • •
A month after the LMC scouts were destroyed in Canis Major, Admiral Glennon contacted Alex and notified him and Jingle to be available for a video conference the next morning. Alex suggested that Gee keep Belle and that they would take the call on board the Rapids in orbit.”
“Why do you want to do that?”
“We need to use the ship, Jingle. We’ve only used it to go to Canis Major and it needs to be used regularly.” Jingle shrugged and took Belle to Gee before lifting off for orbit.
Chapter Four
The large central wall monitor activated precisely at 10 am and Admiral Glennon appeared, “Good morning. I’ve assembled my Senior Admirals here in the Union and they will be participating in the meeting.”
“Why didn’t you call us in to New York, Sir?” Jingle asked.
“I think that will become clear in a moment. One of our stealth probes intercepted a conversation between the leader of the LMC Civilization and the one commanding his fleets. Thanks to the Canis Leader, we now have the LMC language translation along with the encryption they use. I can’t come close to pronouncing that Leader’s title so wherever it’s used in the conversation the computer has inserted Kraken.”
“Wasn’t that some sort of ancient monster?”
“Yes Alex. But it’s the closest word in our language that sounds remotely like it; we also learned what they look like as well. Please hold all comments until the recording ends.”
The view on the monitor changed and Jingle drew in a breath. The alien looked…threatening. It walked on four legs and its upper body extended vertically from the front of the four legs. Its arms had two joints with eight large multi jointed fingers on one hand and a large claw on the other. The alien’s head was triangular in shape with two large bulbous eyes that wrapped around from the front of the head to the sides. It didn’t have the jaws of a mantis but a wide mouth that extended up the head close to two small holes that had to be where it breathed. Jingle whispered to Alex, “It reminds me of a mantis.” Alex nodded and stared at the monitor.
“It’s been brought to my attention that the fifty warships you sent to the small galaxy have been destroyed,” the Kraken stated.
“Yes Kraken, they were.”
“How was it done?”
The Fleet Commander hesitated and replied, “We don’t know.”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW!?!”
“Kraken, they were all reporting normally one moment and instantly all of them ceased reporting.”
“All of them?!”
“Yes Kraken.”
“You’ve been telling me that civilization is no match for our warships!”
“It appears they’ve been hiding something from us. They removed all fifty ships faster than any of them could report in on how it was done.”
“And what are you planning to do about it?”
“I’ve started assembling a fleet of our c
lass B warships to go in and find out what’s happening, Kraken.”
“And what happens if those ships are destroyed as well?” The Fleet Commander was silent, and the Kraken leaned back slightly, “You haven’t considered that, have you?”
“We are able to detect their warships, Kraken. If we find they far outnumber our fleet, we will withdraw.”
“Those fifty scouts could also detect their warships and none of them survived to tell you what destroyed them. We are not prepared to open another war.”
“But Kraken…”
The Kraken interrupted, “I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH OF OUR CLASS A WARSHIPS TO TAKE TO ANOTHER GALAXY!! WE MUST SOLIDIFY OUR GAINS AGAINST THE FORMER ENEMY!!”
“Yes Kraken.”
The Kraken glared at the Fleet Commander and then announced, “We will send all of our remaining Class B Warships to scout that galaxy in five years. That will give you fifteen-thousand warships to determine what’s going on. If they fail to conquer that civilization, we’ll look at starting a new war to eliminate them. We need to lull them into a sense of security before we attack again.”
“I will begin to prepare the Class B’s immediately.”
“You should have all of them within three years, Fleet Commander. While you’re waiting you should take the time to upgrade their weapons. The planets we’ve conquered will start building new warships within four years.”
• • •
The Wall monitor went dark and Jingle looked at Alex. His expression was troubled, and she turned back to the monitor when Admiral Glennon appeared, “It appears we have some time before we have to face the LMC Civilization again. That buys us enough time to build up our number of warships.”
“Sir, we must know what we’re up against before we continue building the Terminators.”
Glennon turned to Alex on the monitor, “Why do you say that?”
“Sir, what if they can’t stand up to this Class A Warship that leader mentioned?”
“What do you suggest, Admiral Berringer?”
“We must send in a scout to do an active scan of one of those warships, Sir.”
“That might trigger an all-out war before we’re ready, Admiral.”
“You heard the Leader say they were going to start building new warships on the planets they’ve conquered in four years. Couple that with what they’re already producing, and we might be forced to attack them before we allow that to happen,” Alex replied.
Admiral Roland spoke up, “Why don’t we send Admiral Jingle out to discuss not sending their forces to Canis Major?”
Jingle immediately spoke up, “It won’t work!”
Admiral Glennon turned to her, “Why not. It did with the Canis Civilization.”
Jingle sighed, “Sir, the Canis Civilization was not, and never has been, an aggressive civilization. They started building fleets of warships to defend themselves and only looked at invading the Milky Way to escape the LMC Civilization. On the other hand, the LMC Civilization is clearly an aggressive civilization and they’ll look at any discussion to stay out as being weak. They have to be punched in the nose before you can get their attention and even then it might not work.”
“Are you suggesting we not even try?”
“No Sir, but we have to give them a good reason to listen. That won’t happen until they try their best warships against us.”
“Do you still insist that we not use the Terminators when they launch their next invasion?”
“Yes Sir.”
“But we’ll only outnumber them two to one,” Roland interrupted.
“That’s true, Admiral Roland. But there’s twelve hundred reasons for each of their ships that should do the job.”
“What are you talking about, Admiral?” Glennon asked.
“Each of the Triples carry six-hundred missiles, Sir. I believe those ships they’re sending won’t stand up to that many fired at them.”
“So you don’t agree with Admiral Berringer that we should attack them first?”
Jingle glanced at Alex before saying, “No, I do not. If we take the fight to the LMC, then we’re the ones that will be forced to use long supply lines to conduct the war. It takes the warships in the LMC ten days to arrive at Canis Major and I’m certain the supply ships they’ll have to use to support their forces will take much longer. Hell, even our freighters will take more than two weeks to arrive at the LMC. And we should keep in mind that if we attack that civilization, how do you think other civilizations in the LMC might respond? They may choose to side with them against us?”
“And just how do you know there are other civilizations in the LMC?” Admiral Wozniak asked.
“Well, they just conquered one for starters. Further, if they were the only civilization remaining, they wouldn’t be worried about launching all their warships against Canis Major. They also wouldn’t need to build new warships on newly conquered planets. I suspect they are forced to keep a large defense in place to defend their territory,” Jingle answered.
Jingle paused and nodded toward Alex, “Admiral Berringer is right; we must determine the capabilities of their best warship. If the Terminators can’t stand up to them then we build a new ship. They can’t match us in productivity even with any new planets they’ve conquered. They have ten billion stars in the LMC, but the Milky Way has more than four hundred billion. I think we lose sight of that and we shouldn’t be as worried about them as all of us fear.”
“They have far more warships than the Ragers used, Admiral. And look at the damage they caused.”
Jingle looked at Admiral Kennedy, “Hell Admiral, every planet in the Forbidden Wilds has more warships than the Ragers had. And back then, the Union had none. It’s a completely different ball game now.”
Jingle turned to Admiral Glennon, “Sir, we need to do more than scan one of their warships.” Admiral Glennon’s head tilted. “We need to attack one and hit it with our blasters and missiles.”
The room burst into bedlam and Jingle sat back in her chair and waited. Alex looked at her shaking his head slightly and wondered once again at how Jingle could totally disrupt a meeting. But he was forced to agree that she was right in what she had said.
Finally, the shouting died down and Admiral Glennon smiled slightly and asked, “Why do you think we need to do that?”
“Well, first of all, even if we fail in destroying the LMC warship, we’ll learn what we need to do to build a ship that can do it.”
“But they’ll discover our existence?”
“No they won’t!” Jingle replied. “Canis Major has no ship like a Terminator, and they might think it came from a civilization in the LMC. I suspect that last item might cause them to delay their attack on Canis Major for a much longer time to discover where the Terminator came from.”
Alex was shaking his head slightly and Admiral Glennon saw it, “What are you thinking, Admiral?”
Alex glanced at Jingle before answering, “What do you think is going to happen if we use our missiles to destroy their Class B warships?”
The conference was silent, and Jingle finally replied, “They’ll decide to put force fields around their Class A warships.” Alex was surprised and Jingle smiled, “I’m linked in to the same computers you are, Alex.”
Alex turned to Admiral Glennon, “If they decide to do that, their next attack could be delayed years.”
“And putting a force field on their ships won’t help them,” Jingle added. “Our missiles can go through a force field and they won’t learn that when they send their Class B ships to attack Canis because they won’t be using one.”
Glennon was nodding his head, “So, by attacking one of their new warships, they will probably be delayed in launching their second attack on Canis Major. And destroying their second attack with our Triple Warship’s missiles, they could be delayed further installing force fields on their ships.”
Jingle smiled, “Which gives us more than enough time to make any changes necessary to the Terminators, Sir.”
“We need to do something else before we go in and attack one of their ships.”
Everyone turned to Alex as he continued, “We need to send in scouts to take a good look at the LMC. If there are more aggressive civilizations there, we need to know it. The stealth scouts we launched were programmed to observe only the civilization there we know about and that won’t cut it.”
Jingle smiled and turned to Admiral Glennon, “We have some time before they launch their second attack; develop a new scout ship that can make this happen.”
“A new scout ship?”
“Yes Sir. The Terminators are huge, and they might be detected by accident due to their size. Develop a ship that’s small, carries a few missiles for defense, and is the stealthiest vessel we’ve ever built. It should have a two-man crew so they can sleep and split time carrying out their mission.”
Mike turned to Wozniak, “Can you do it?”
“Yes Sir. However, I think we should go ahead and attack one of their warships now. Admiral Jingle is right about discovering their capabilities. Any new scout we develop will be operating outside their territory finding out what’s in the rest of the Large Magellanic Cloud and shouldn’t be at risk.”
“How long will it take you to build them?”
“Sir, we have all we need to build them and should be able to have them in service in less than four months.”
Mike nodded, “Make it happen.” Mike turned back to Jingle, “Who do you suggest to go and pick a fight with one of their warships?”
“Sir, if the scouts can be ready in four months, use them to find an enemy warship to attack. Once that’s done, they can move out into the LMC. I suggest Admiral Wolfe to conduct the attack.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“If I had any doubts, he removed them when he attacked the LMC scouts in Canis Major.”
“What about you, Admiral Berringer?”
“Sir, I really want to do it, but Jingle is right; he’s a good one to pull it off.”