Chapter Thirteen – Knowing Thy Enemy
T wo years of traveling between Tataun and neighboring galaxies went very rapidly. The expedition to the first galaxy found an entire galaxy void of life, not one planet supporting life was discover, no dead civilizations, not even the building blocks of life. The galaxy they visited was the perfect place to acquire building materials, but not much more. Two of the uninhabited planets they visited were very high in mineral content, so harvesting ships were equipped with the new Reeder Drives and sent in to harvest the vast precious metals and minerals used in constructing ships for the expansion of the fleet.
Just as it looked like Inman and his fleet would be able to set out on his long-awaited exploration of other galaxies the fateful page came into his comlink.
“Commander Inman, this is Bo Junior sir. We have located the Silirc fleet, I think you better come to the communications center sir” requested Bo Junior.
Will knew instinctively what this meant so he paged Cerro and asked him to join him in Titan’s top secret JRay communications lab.
“The Silirc are on a direct course for Earth sir; they are going to attach earth, we have to stop them” Elizabeth Murphy Stockman pleaded.
“Ok Elizabeth, we are going to stop them. Tell me what you know Bo” commanded Inman.
“They are on a direct course for Earth, traveling at maximum warp right toward earth. We are still running the numbers but it appears they will arrive in about two years” responded Bo Junior.
“Two years” shouted Cerro, “they must have set course for Earth right after our last encounter with them. There is no way they could have traveled so far with only warp speeds.”
“They did it somehow” replied Inman, “we need to find out how and we need to find out everything we can about them.”
“Aye aye, sir” replied Cerro.
“I want probes on the Silirc ships; I want to know everything about their technology, their weapons, their tactics, and strategies. We cannot get caught off guard with these guys again; they have a way of sucker punching you when you least expect it” commanded Inman.
“Sir there are many more ships than we have probes” responded Cerro.
“We could move them from ship to ship, or perhaps we could identify the biggest threats first and probe them” offered Bo Jr.
“Is there any way to hide our probes from them, we do not want them to know we are on to them” countered Inman.
“I will get to work on some ideas on how to keep them out of sight” responded Bo Jr.
“John, how do you see it right now, if we position our fleet to protect earth from a Silirc invasion what do you see as the most likely outcome?” queried Inman.
“We do not have a chance sir; they will overwhelm our forces with sheer numbers. It will be a slaughter unless we can come up with a plan to deal with their numbers” replied Cerro.
“Then we better start planning. I want you to all start thinking about the potential destruction and enslavement of our entire species. We need a plan to defeat the enemy, and we have two years to perfect it.”
The entire staff nodded, but Will Inman could see faces flooded with disbelief at what Cerro had just reported. There is no way he could let them walk away stunned and without hope.
“Before I dismissed you I want you all to think about something” Inman offered. “We left Earth hundreds of years ago. However, on earth, only a few days have passed. They have no idea what is about to happen to them. We are their only hope of survival, and they are not even aware they have a problem.”
“How do we fight a race who appear to be single-minded about dominating any race they come up against” queried Leo Bennett.
“We are not a warring people; we did not ask for a fight, we do not even know why the Silirc are aggressive toward us” chimed Evelyn Reeder Inman.
“None of us know enough to speculate about any of these things at this point. What we do know is who we are and what we have achieved. In all of human history, there has not been as much advancement of the human race as there has been since we left Earth. We seem to be a peculiar group of people, capable of living up to unreasonable expectations, for doing things everyone else said was impossible. We have met no one in our travels with the capabilities the Reeder drives, and the shell generators have given us” Inman reasoned. “I do not know how we are going to do it, but I know we are up to the challenge and I know the people in this room are up to the challenge.”
Then as if he had not said a word Elizabeth Murphy Stockman began a list of potential weapons ideas followed by another list from Bo Jr and Leo Bennett, and Evelyn Inman chimed in as well with ideas on how to combat the sheer numbers they were expecting.
“Is there anyone you would like to enlist in the planning and weapons development process?” queried Inman.
“We will get a list together sir” replied Cerro.
“Ok, let’s meet back here in twenty-four hours, I don’t want anyone sleeping until we have met again and gone over our options” Inman commanded.
With his final declaration, the team broke up and went their way.
Will Inman decided to take a stroll through the Titan, stopping at each of the weapons systems installed in the gigantic battleship. When he came to the fire control room he entered and gazed around at all the high-tech equipment and the men and women manning their stations. The sheer size of the room was impressive, it was as large as his home, and two stories from floor to ceiling with dozens of personnel stations attended by battle ready junior officers studying intelligence and systems readiness information displayed for them on a combination of holographic heads-up displays and traditional monitors.
There was a great battle coming, and Will Inman wanted time, time to build the right force to confront the enemy. Will knew he needed to visit with his old friend Leo Bennett.
“Leo” Inman shouted from the entry door of the diner.
“Hello Commander” replied Bennett, “join Bo I, we are just strategizing ideas over a cup of Terry’s coffee.”
“I think I will thanks” replied Inman. “Leo, I have a comment and then a question. When we left earth time stood still for the people we left behind while many years have passed for us, correct?”
“ it depends on whether you look at it from their perspective or ours” responded Bennett.
“Ok my question is why time isn’t standing still for the other species we meet up with?” queried Inman.
“You are asking a very complex question. Think about it like time zones; we moved time zones; we were in one time zone and moved to another. We are now in the same time zone as the Silirc” explained Bennett.
“It still does not make any sense to me, but here is my question. How do we sync up to the Silirc time zone and then make time stand still for the Silirc like it did on earth when we departed?” asked Inman.
“We would have to sync our position in space and time with their position in space and time.”
“How do we sync up?” asked Inman.
“We have to go to where they are, sync to their speed and direction of travel, bring down the shell generators and then engage the shell generators again, at the point we have achieved these things we would virtually stand still in time. They would still take two years to travel to earth. However, the two years could be a thousand years for us” replied Bennett.
“Crazy” replied Inman. “So now the elephant in the room, how long would it take for us to bring down the shells, sync to the same time zone and reset the shells?” asked Inman.
“We have never done it before, so I cannot give you a definitive answer, however, I know it will not be instantaneous, we would become targets the second we arrived and very vulnerable as soon as we brought down the shells. The Titan and the newer battle group ships could handle the directed energy weapons for a short amount of time without the shells, but the civilian ships would be vulnerable” replied Bennett.
“Ok, I need answers, I need to know how long
it will take, let me know as soon as you know please,” asked Inman.
“Sure, I think I am tracking with you on this one, we just need more time to ready for engaging the Silirc fleet” replied Bo Stockman Sr.
“Yep, we just have to survive the ordeal” replied Inman. “I will leave the two of you to your work; I need your estimates as soon as you can get them to me, please.”
“Of course, should have them by the time we meet back up tomorrow.”
Strategy meetings were always Will Inman’s strength as a leader. He seemed to have a knack for winnowing out tactical discussions until everyone understood the overall strategic plan. Once everyone was on board with a plans strategy he opened the discussion for tactics.
“Today’s meeting will be about three things” Will thought to himself, “ideas, strategy, and tactics. People are probably going to die on this mission, and our success or failure is going to be determined by how well we plan, prepare and execute.”
Will was surprised to see his entire executive team had already arrived in the conference room.
“How is everyone?” Inman said as his greeting to everyone, “you all beat me here.”
There was a somber mood in the room as Will found a seat at the head of the table with Bo Stockman at the opposite end.
“I sense we are at a pivotal moment in human history” Inman began, “our ability as leaders, better yet our duty as leaders is to dig deep to the core. A time for the passion of who we are and what we love to drive us in search of a plan to bring us success against the Silirc, to buy us time to grow the fleet in numbers and capability.”
“The agenda here today is simple” began Inman, “first I would like a status report from everyone. Then I want to discuss the ideas and proposals you have been contemplating. Then we can strategize a plan I can hand over to tactical to help us be as successful as possible. Leo, do you know how long it is going to take us to synchronize our time with the Silirc fleet?”
“They are traveling at high warp, so we have to get them to drop out of warp, our sudden appearance in their midst should do the trick. The Silirc directed energy weapons will not work at warp, so they have to drop out to fire on us. Once they drop out, we have to lower the shells of every ship in the fleet. Synchronization with the Silirc is instantaneous; however, it will take us about five minutes to get all the shell generators reactivated and get out of there.” Bennett reported.
“Where are our greatest vulnerabilities?” Inman queried.
“The civilian ships are in the most peril, we have seen what their weapons can do to the shuttle fighters and how they knocked down the shell generators given enough time. This time we will not have the benefit of the shells and the worst part is we will not have TRay or JRay capabilities, so our most potent weapons will be offline, all we will have for the fight are the directed energy weapons” Bennett responded.
“Ok, we know what we are up against time wise. What have we learned from our probes?” queried Inman.
“Their weaponry is the same as we have seen before, nothing new has shown up yet. It has been difficult at this range to get enough data in the millisecond appearances we have been making, but we now know their fleet is much like our own, they have civilian ships where they raise their young and warships. The warships are not like ours, however. Their ships are offensive in nature; everything is designed to attack and capture, they even have specialized ships where they house captured species. What they do with them is like something out of a nightmare” Bo Jr. continued.
“Let’s not go there” interrupted Elizabeth Murphy Stockman.
“Sorry” replied Bo Junior.
“Where are their greatest vulnerabilities,” Inman asked.
“We believe they use massive power generation systems fueled by anti-matter to attain the power requirements for travel at warp. These types of systems are highly volatile when destabilized” reported Bo Jr.
“They seem to be highly superstitious and ritualistic people. They practice a sort of ritual daily at the same interval. Everyone partakes at the same time, and it appears to last about five minutes” reported Elizabeth.
“It appears they allow their weapons systems to power down when they are not in battle. I am sure they have never met an enemy willing to attack a fleet of over a million ships” Cerro chimed.
“So their arrogance and overconfidence might be a weakness we can exploit” Bo Senior interjected.
“How about their formation, where are the civilian ships in their formation” queried Inman.
“They surround them with battleships. It appears they station a battle group around their populated civilian ships just like we do. There are ten ships in a battle group, and they protect one hundred civilian ships. The civilian ships come in all shapes and sizes, some biosphere and some housing and some are research centers” explained Cerro.
“At this point, do we still have the element of surprise?” asked Inman.
“Yes we do, they have not detected the presence of the probes, we do not leave them in place long enough to be detected, and the new probes are tiny constructed primarily of fiber optic filament they are almost transparent” replied Bo Jr.
“Perfect” Inman replied. “Is there anything else we have learned?” Inman asked.
No one else responded, and Will knew it was time to dive into the details, “ok, let’s have your ideas” Inman said with a commanding tone.
Anticipation
Within a week the mining ships had returned to the fleet and Inman had everyone including criminals aboard and ready to make the fateful trip to join up with the Silirc fleet where they would battle for a mere five minutes while the shell generators were taken offline and then back online again.
Will Inman stepped onto the bridge of the Titan and ordered Navigation to plot an intercept and synchronization course for the Silirc fleet. As soon as you have resolved the course, I need to know how long we have until we arrive, and I need it to the second.”
“Aye Sir” replied the young navigator, “what speed will we be traveling sir?”
“As fast as the fleet can travel.”
“Aye Sir.”
Within a few minutes, the young navigator had his course solution, “I have a countdown clock on the overhead monitor sir.”
“Keep it updated young man” commanded Inman, “I want it restarted once we get underway.”
“Aye aye, sir” replied the navigator.
“Let’s go face our fears,” Inman thought as he gave the order to couple the entire fleet and engaged the Reeder Drives. Instantly the timer on the overhead monitor started counting down by the second. “A little over two months,” Inman thought, “our trip to Andromeda had taken over two hundred hears, and now with Evelyn's hopper drive improvements the time was down to only two months. If this is the kind of advancements we can make in two hundred years what can we accomplish in hundreds of years getting ready to battle the Silirc for the survival of earth.”
Travel from Andromeda to the Milky Way was uneventful, more like traversing an ocean in a sail boat than galaxies in a starship. Every morning Will and Evelyn would take their children and walk to the observation deck where they had a panoramic view of the fleet, and the vast expanse of space in front of and behind them, their progress toward the beautiful disk floating in space in front of them was hardly noticeable day to day.
Will and his team spent hours planning the details of the upcoming encounter. The first element of their plan was the subject of their daily status meeting today.
“Good morning everyone,” Will Inman said as he entered the conference room, “are we ready for our first surprise?”
“Yes we are” responded Bo Junior, “would you like to see it?”
“You mean you can show it to us here?” replied Inman.
“Sure” replied Bo Junior.
“Let’s see it” urged Cerro.
Bo tapped a few keys on the table top console in front of him and turned to an open area o
f the room just to his left as he pressed the last key. Within a second swirling light began to form into an apparition, its form was a Silirc warrior glowing just as they did, but the form was not solid, it had more of a ghostly appearance. The form supported a lance strapped to its side, much like the Lance used in the daily Silirc rituals Cerro and Bo Jr. had been observing. Once the ghost had fully formed a voice coming from it spoke something unintelligible in the Silirc tongue.
“What is it saying” Evelyn queried.
“It is using some of the words in the chant we have observed in their rituals” replied Cerro. “It is saying something like “be the mind, be the soul, be the menitor” and we have no idea what a menitor is but it is very significant because they close their eyes and bow their heads when they say the word.”
“Very nice Bo” Inman replied to the delight of the entire group, “Just one small detail when it appeared it took shape in front of us slowly, gradually. Can you make it disappear the same way?”
“Sure but we will have to make the overall appearance a little shorter to accommodate it. That will speed up delivery of the message a little, but it will not make a noticeable difference” Bo replied. “If we leave it any longer, it could draw their attention to the probe at the base, and away from the apparition and make them suspicious.”
“Perfect, make the change and have them start appearing every day in front of the Silirc alters at the exact time they practice their daily ritual. I want as many of them distracted as possible when our troops board their ships.”
“Aye aye, sir” replied Cerro, “the first will begin appearing today at 3:05 PM. The last one will appear seven days from now as we drop in on them during their ritual time.”
“Devious, genius but devious” replied Leo Bennett, “I would love to see their faces the first time one of them sees the image.”
“How long from the time we arrive until our troops can board their bridges and take out their command centers” queried Inman.
“We will have them on board the Silirc ships within a second of our arrival” replied Cerro. “They will set up a crossfire on the bridge, take out the command crew, plant the explosives and be ported directly to the next ship; we should be able to cover all the ships within striking range of our fleet in about three minutes if everything goes according to plan. The shuttle fighters will be attacking ships firing upon us with directed energy weapons within seconds of our arrival.”
Battle Group Titan: Beyond Warp ((Battle Group Titan Series Vol 1)) Page 16