by Saxon Andrew
“From communicating with one of your warships.”
“THEY WOULD NEVER COMMUNICATE WITH YOU!!”
“You are.” The Fleet Director slammed back in his chair and was silent. Sam waited and said, “There’s been too much death. Can you not see that? I do not desire to kill you needlessly. But refusing to communicate will leave me no choice.”
The Science Director looked at the Fleet Director, “I’m curious to know what happened to the ship that communicated with them.”
“Are you saying I should talk with him?”
The Director shrugged, “I’m a scientist. I’m constantly curious about things I don’t know. Besides, what will the Prime Director do to us? We’re dead anyway if we make it back.” The Fleet Director’s eyes widened slightly. “Communication was lost. You’re dead if you go back. The Prime Director will probably kill all of us with you as an example of those who fail.”
The surviving warships listened to the conversation over the open channel. The crews looked at each other and knew the Prime Director was responsible for what happened.
The Fleet Director sat up and said, “What happened to the warship that communicated with you?”
“We removed its weapons and took the crew to a planet. They are doing quite well.”
“That’s not possible. If that ship was one we sent earlier, they would be out of food.”
“You need to be careful about what you think is impossible. Not every civilization is out to destroy all the others like yours. But I’m reasonably certain you know that. However, we do not kill without good reason. I am reluctant to kill you if you are not attempting to attack me. Are you willing to allow me to let you and your warriors live?”
“That is not how we function.”
“You just said that you and your warriors are under a death sentence. Even if we chose to release you, which we are not, you would still die.”
“I will not do anything to strengthen you against my civilization.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“You want to take my surviving warships and use them to learn our technology.”
“We already know it. We scanned your warships more than four years ago, including the newer model you are currently commanding. There is nothing about your ships that we don’t already know.”
The Weapons Director said from her station, “I don’t want to die, Fleet Leader. I’ve never had a family.”
“I need time to discuss this with my Ship Directors.”
“By all means.”
“How do I know you’re being honest?”
Sam smiled, “You’re still alive; I could kill you easily enough. Let me know what you decide. If you choose to die, I will help you do it. I just think you should have another option.”
Sam ended the connection and Gem said, “You have got to be kidding me! This is ludicrous.”
Desiree stepped behind Leonidas and Gem saw her on his monitor, “You’re still too much an insectoid, Gem. Didn’t you want to allow the Pirates to be destroyed. Every time it comes down to a decision between life and death, you always choose death. What do you think Ana would say if she were here and what would she have to say about the stance you’ve taken?”
Gem stared at Desiree and after a moment said, “You will keep this to yourself and not tell her, I trust?”
“Only if you behave.”
Sam smiled, “Ok. If they still choose to die, we’ll help them on their way to the next life after this one.”
Chapter Twenty
The discussion took most of a day. It finally came down to not allowing this enemy to steal their technology. The Fleet Director left the communication channel open so every surviving warship could listen in. He activated his communicator and said, “We have come to a resolution.”
Lydia said, “Give us a moment. Our leader is off the bridge. He should be here in ten minutes.”
The Communication Director looked at the Fleet Director, “How did they learn our language?”
The Science Director chuckled, “They told us they scanned our newest warship four years ago, that gave them plenty of time to record our transmissions and develop a language program for their computers. The voices I’m hearing are computer generated to match the speaker’s voice.”
“Are you saying giving them our ships won’t help them?”
“They might in some small way. However, it’s clear that they already knew the weak points on our hulls to attack. I don’t think allowing them access to our vessels will make a difference.” The crews on the other ships listened to the exchange and wondered if the plan to self-destruct would accomplish anything.
“I’m sorry about the delay. Have you decided what you want to do?”
“We’ve agreed that if there is a way to survive without sharing our technology with you, we are willing to discuss it.”
“So, you intend to destroy your ships before we can inspect them.”
“That’s what we’ve decided.”
“Ok. You can set them to self-destruct once you arrive and move your crews out.”
The Fleet Director was silent for a long moment, and then said, “Just like that; you don’t have any interest in inspecting my vessels?”
Sam smiled, “I wasn’t kidding you about one of my ships scanning your warships years ago, we have a complete blueprint of both models and, meaning no disrespect, there is nothing on your vessels we could use.”
“What about my blaster technology?”
“Our blasters are slightly more powerful and use far less energy that yours.”
“You could duplicate our armor technology.”
“We have more of your armor than we could ever use after we destroyed the two-hundred warships you sent here.”
“We didn’t send one of our advance warships here with those ships!”
“No, you didn’t. We scanned the new model in your territory during an invasion. You didn’t detect our scans; you thought it was done by the forces defending the planet.”
“Then what do you intend to do with my ships if I don’t destroy them?”
“I really haven’t thought about it. I guess if we manage to win this conflict, I would give them back to you and allow you to return to your territory. However, you will not have access to them until the conflict is resolved. If we lose, I suspect you will not be able to go home.”
“I do not see how you can do what you’re suggesting,” the Fleet Director replied.
“It’s not entirely up to me. There is one other that you will have to convince that you’re worth saving.”
“Who is that?”
“The Tronan Leader on the planet we’re taking you to. If he refuses to offer you sanctuary, then you’ll have to carry out your plan to self-destruct.”
“One of our own would not turn us down.”
Sam smiled, “I suggest you hold that thought until you meet him. However, are you prepared to follow my instructions?”
“As long as we do not turn our ships over to you, I am.”
“Then order all your ships to shut down their blasters and point their barrels toward their hulls. If we detect one blaster being charged, we will blast that ship into dust. If more than one vessel charges its blasters, then we’ll end this effort and kill all of you. Is that fair?”
“I suppose.”
“Turn your formation and follow the formation holding position behind you. I will be sending ten of my vessels to escort each of your warships. They will move in and remain less than a mile above your hulls.”
“They could kill us without our being able to react!”
Sam sighed, “Less you forget, you had already allowed them to get that close when you ordered your ships to stop firing at us.”
The Fleet Director closed his eyes and said, “You are right. We’ll follow you.” The Fleet Director said where all his Ship Directors could hear, “You will not activate a blaster without my direct
orders. Stay in formation and let us see what is going on.”
The Fleet Director sat back wondered what this being was leading him toward.
• • •
Sam pressed a button, “Embree.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
“I need you to take Angel to the location of the short-cut filament.”
Angel suddenly appeared on his monitor, “What’s going on, Sam?”
“I’m leading more than three-hundred Tronan Warships to the Children’s Planet.”
“WHY?”
“They stopped defending themselves and I deemed it improper to just murder them.”
“Are you intending to release them?”
“That’s the idea.”
“The children will never agree to that, Sam. They despise their adults.”
“Never, say never, Angel. If doing this was the right thing before, we have to at least try.”
“But they were children!”
“You’re never too old to learn something new. At least I hope that’s the case. We’ll discuss it with the children and if they say no, then it’s no.”
Angel stared at Sam on the monitor and shook her head, “I hope you’re right. I could feel the hatred of the Children’s Leader last time we spoke with him.”
“We’ll see.”
• • •
Gloria looked at the long-range monitor and saw the huge line of white lights moving on the giant filament. She saw the front of the line scatter and move out to the edges of the four-hundred plus mile wide filament. Pat stared at her monitor and shook her head as the line of probes scattered as they approached a single ship, “That ship is probably scared witless.”
Gloria nodded and smiled, “It just boosted to the reverse flow and left the side the probes are on.”
Pat nodded, “The first probes to scatter are now moving back into the center of the filament.”
Gloria stared at the monitor and said, “They look like a giant snake slithering toward us.”
Pat nodded and said, “Tommy, they’ll be in range in about two hours.”
“Roger has not detected another ship between us and the probes. We are going to move forward and meet then halfway. We’ll open fire and move away in thirty-minutes.”
“Lead the way. I wish we had some missiles.”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you.”
“Tell me what?” Pat asked.
“We had four missiles attached to our hulls behind the bow fins. Your scout wasn’t around to have the missiles installed.”
Gloria said, “But that means we have less than eighty to use against them!”
“We will only fire one at a time into the leading edge. They’ll try to scatter but the missile will fly into those behind and detonate. We’ll fire our blasters at the moment of detonation. The probes rushing up from behind will not be able to avoid our attack. If the missiles don’t work, we’ll just use our blasters.”
Gloria sighed, “Why didn’t the scout I lost use the missile to destroy his target?”
“We were ordered to only use them if they would not be detected by the Tronan Warships. That scout followed his orders.”
Gloria sighed and said, “Who’s firing the first missile.”
Tommy chuckled, “That would be me.”
“Make it count.”
“Be ready to activate your force field at the moment of impact, Gloria. We’re not going to be very far from the missile’s detonation.”
“I would also recommend that we aim our blasters at the edges of the detonation. They won’t make it through the explosion,” Tej thought to Tommy.
Tommy nodded, “Send a thought to everyone, Tej, telling them to do just that.”
“I’ll also assign targeting vectors so our blasters don’t overlap.”
“Good. Get ready, fifteen-minutes to launch.”
• • •
The twenty scouts moved against the flow of the filament and stopped as the massive wave of probes bore down on them. They began moving in the flow of the filament and then Tommy yelled, “FIRING MISSILE!”
Gloria stared at her monitor and saw the small missile leap out from their formation and fight against the filament’s flow. The scouts moved away from it as the massive wave of probes rushed in at an incredible closing speed. The missile was so small, the leading edge of probes didn’t detect it until they were right on top of it. They tried to evade but failed. The missile detonated at the front of the wave and the explosion filled more than twenty-miles of the filament. The scouts opened fire with their blasters as tens of thousands of the probes turned away from the explosion.
Gloria held her position as Pat fired the scout’s blasters and stared at the long-range scanner. The Tronan Probes behind the explosion all turned and evaded toward the outer edges of the giant filament. What looked like a snake, now appeared to be a giant cloud moving away from the center of the filament. Tommy announced, “Turn and accelerate away. We have to set up a hundred light years in front of them.”
Gloria whipped the scout around and flew away from the massive wave of probes that had moved even with them on the filament. She looked up and asked, “Computer, damage estimate?”
“I’ll need some time for the probes to reform, where I can measure the length of their line.”
Gloria nodded and saw that moving just a hundred light years was optimistic. The probes didn’t reform until they moved a hundred-thousand light years. This was going to take much longer than they anticipated. The Computer announced, “Ten-thousand probes were destroyed. That is a rough estimate but a conservative estimate.”
Gloria thought, “Tej, connect me with the others.”
“You’re connected.”
“I’ve replayed the attack and I think there’s a better way to do this.”
Tommy replied, “Let’s hear it.”
“My computer tells me that we destroyed about ten-thousand probes in our first attack. At that rate, it is going to take fifty more attacks and as their numbers decrease, they’ll become harder to hit. I suggest that whoever is launching the missile will remain in the center of the filament. The rest of us will move out ahead of the launch and gather over the top and bottom of the oncoming wave. They will scatter directly toward us and give us a target rich environment. We’ll destroy as many as possible and then run to reform. Tej, can you make the assignments?”
“I’ll get my computer working on it now. You’ll have them in a few moments.”
Tommy smiled, “Good plan, Gloria.”
Gloria smiled and received her assigned position. She looked at Pat, “Make every shot count.” Pat smiled and stared at her targeting program.
Tommy moved his scout to his assigned position and watched the leading edge of the probes rush past and then explode as the missile detonated. He activated the force field and kept his eyes on the tactical scanner as he moved the scout to avoid being rammed by one of the evading probes. Roger was rapid firing the two blasters and continued firing until the probes moving toward them evaded the explosions. Tommy announced, “I’m getting out of here! We’ve barely missed being rammed by more than a hundred probes.”
“Get moving. I’ll keep them away from us until you clear them!”
• • •
Two hours later, the scouts gathered and flew at high speed to their next attack site. Gloria thought, “Tommy, I’m concerned about something.”
Tej sent the thought to the entire unit and Tommy replied, “What is that?”
“If we have to move a hundred-thousand light years to set up each attack, by the end of this, we’ll have traveled five-billion light years. That’s half the distance to Tronan Territory. What if the Tronan have sent a fleet to investigate the loss of their communication line. There is a possibility that we might run up on them.”
Tommy’s eyes widened, “You’re right. All of us need to think about this possibility and determine what we can do abou
t it.”
Pat thought to the unit, “It takes us seven days to arrive at each attack. If it takes fifty weeks to do this, the Tronan will arrive in forty-weeks if they’ve sent a fleet.”
“We don’t have much choice, Pat,”
Tej replied. “It takes that long for the probes to move back into the center of the filament.”
Gloria shook her head, “Computer, how many probes were destroyed in our last attack?”
“I’ll let you know in six days.” Gloria shook her head. And thought, “Should we send one of us ahead to see if they’re moving toward us.”
Tommy looked at Roger and he thought, “If we send one of us to find out, we’ll lose five percent of our firepower. That is significant. We can’t afford to do that.”
Gloria looked up, “Computer, of the ten-thousand probes we destroyed in our first attack, how many did the missile destroy?”
“It appears seventy-percent were destroyed by the missile.”
“Are you saying that only three-thousand were destroyed by our blasters?”
“Actually, only two-thousand-eighty were destroyed by our blaster fire. That’s pretty good considering you only have thirty-nine working blasters.”
“What happened to the others?”
“They rammed each other attempting to evade.”
Gloria thought a moment, “Were any of them destroyed when they evaded that ship they ran up on in the filament?”
“Yes, eight-hundred rammed into each other.”
“But they moved back into the center of the filament in less than a day.”
“They appear to be programmed to avoid the center for a longer time if they detect an explosion or a blaster discharge. I’m making this conclusion based on the evidence.”
Gloria thought furiously and said, “I have an idea. Tej, is everyone listening?”
“Yes,” the Guyton replied.”
“I want all of us to go into the reverse filament and move back even with the probes when they reform.”
“Gloria, we need to attack them when they reform!” Tommy replied.
“Tommy, we have to use their programming against them.” Silence greeted her response and Gloria continued, “My computer believes if they evade to avoid a ship in the filament, they will reform their wave in the center of the filament in twenty-four hours. If they detect an explosion or blaster, they’ll take much longer to reform. Each time they evade, large numbers of the probes ram each other and are destroyed. They lost eight-hundred evading that first vessel they encountered when this started. We’ll go back and come out of the reverse-filament which will cause them to scatter. We’ll then move a day ahead of them and see if they’re reformed in the center of the filament.”