Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera

by Michaels, Gibson

  Besides, the Yankees and most of mankind were still fearful of that mysterious hacker group called the “Friends of the Confederacy,” whose cyber attacks on the Nork banking system had forced the Alliance to recognize Confederate independence years ago. Nothing had been heard from that shadowy group since the peace treaty and normalization of relations between the two countries had been accomplished, but none could have forgotten their ominous warning that “they would be watching.”

  The other major difference between the two political opponents concerned differing methods for financing the tremendous financial burden on the country, remaining on a war footing for so many years, with no foreseeable end in sight. Both the Alliance and the Confederacy had balanced-budget provisions in their constitutions, with war conditions as the only exception for going into debt through the sale of war bonds. Interest rates paid on those war bonds became more and more controversial, as more and more of the government’s annual budget had to be earmarked towards paying that interest on previous year’s bonds.

  After over 40 years in public service, Collier wasn’t sure what he planned to do with the rest of his life, but laying down the burdens and responsibilities of office, returning to the bosom of his family and relaxing next to a Ginia lake drowning worms for a while, really didn’t sound like too bad an idea at all.

  * * * *

  The Trakaan Planet Troxia

  October, 3867

  “We must have absolute assurances that our neutrality, in regards to your war against the Raknii, be recognized as total and irrevocable,” said Fraznal, Planetary Administrator of the Trakaan planet of Troxia. “If agreed to, we will devote all of our energies to engineering a lasting, negotiated peace between humanity and the Raknii Empire.”

  Admiral Eileen Thorn was in complete agreement with Fleet Admiral Kalis’ position that total conquest and occupation of so large an alien empire was implausible, as it would require decades of continued bloodshed and potentially bankrupt the governments of humanity. Much of Kalis’ strategy of deep penetration into Raknii space as quickly as possible, was intended not only to push the enemy away from threatening human planets, but to shock the Raknii with the strength of human arms and impress upon them the logic of pursuing a negotiated cessation of hostilities and peaceful coexistence with humankind.

  According to Fraznal, the Trakaan had already successfully introduced the Raknii to the concept, through their skillful negotiations with a particular Raknii region-master named Raan, which had ended Raknii hostilities towards the Trakaan and persuaded them to return all of their conquered worlds back to Trakaan control. With such skilled negotiators on their side, perhaps this was exactly the opportunity for finding a peaceful solution to the Raknii conflict that Admiral Kalis had been praying for. Thorn herself had been praying very similar prayers, for as skilled and formidable a warrior as she was, Thorn thoroughly detested the appalling waste of lives and property that war invariably entailed.

  “You have those assurances, Planetary Administrator,” replied Thorn. “Would it be possible for you to convince this Region-Master Raan, with whom you’ve worked with before, to meet peacefully with our Commander-in-Chief here on Troxia, as a neutral site, do you think?”

  “Raan is a quite unusual Raknii, in that he’s also a reasonable being. He’s open to new ideas and willing to consider the merits of logical thought,” replied Fraznal. “I’m sure that I can convince him to meet with your Commander-in-Chief, here in this neutral setting, and convince him of human sincerity that he might come here for such a meeting without fearing for his safety.”

  “And would you be willing to personally act as arbitrator, for these peace discussions?” asked Thorn.

  “I would not only be willing, Admiral,” responded Fraznal sincerely. “I would be greatly honored to directly participate in ending wanton death and destruction in this part of our galaxy.”

  “As am I, Planetary Administrator… as am I,” replied Thorn.

  “That is a curious statement, Admiral,” said Fraznal, “coming from one who has dedicated her entire life to perfecting the art of war.”

  “Freedom and peace are siblings, Planetary Administrator,” responded Thorn. “And neither may be obtained without a price. For any people to enjoy the blessings of living freely and in peace, some must always stand ready to kill, and if necessary to die, in defense of their inherent rights to both. I fight solely in the hope that my children and grandchildren will not have to.”

  “My heart is gladdened to hear you say so, Admiral,” said Fraznal. “For a great many of your millennia, we had serious doubts as to whether your species would ever mature enough to attain such civilized beliefs.”

  * * * *

  November, 3867

  “Why is the Alliance Bureau of Investigation here asking questions about my son? What has he done?”

  “Your son hasn’t actually done anything that we’re aware of, Mrs. Masterson,” replied ABI Special Agent Reed Nuland. “We’re simply trying to locate him.”

  “It’s Ms. Masterson… and if the ABI is trying to locate him, then he must have done something, or you wouldn’t be here looking for him.”

  “I’m afraid we can’t comment on the details of an ongoing investigation, Ms. Masterson,” said Nuland’s partner, Special Agent Diana Meltzer. “But, don’t you watch holovision?”

  Nuland and Meltzer were genuinely puzzled that Vice Admiral Masterson’s mother seemed unaware that her son was missing, especially after all of the recent media attention given to the story.

  “No, I don’t own one. Holovision is a drug the government uses to besot ignorant minds to keep the populace quiescent and pliable.”

  “When did you last hear from your son, Ms. Masterson?” asked Nuland.

  “I believe it was two standard years ago… just before Christmas, as I remember.”

  “That would be Christmas of 3865, then?” asked Meltzer, for clarification.

  “Let’s see, 67 minus 2… that would still be 65, yes. I’m sure that your 2nd grade arithmetic teacher would be quite proud that you’ve managed to retain so much of your education, Agent Meltzer.”

  Meltzer’s ears burned at the woman’s belittling remark. Nuland jumped in to defuse the tension of the awkward situation and asked, “How exactly did your son go about contacting you, two years ago, Ms. Masterson? Are you absolutely sure that communication was truly from him?”

  “I would certainly think so. He just showed up at my front door from out of the blue, and rang the doorbell.”

  “Admiral Masterson was actually here, in person?” blurted a startled Diana Meltzer. Nuland shot his partner an annoyed look at her rookie mistake of revealing information to a potential witness.

  “Admiral Masterson?” the woman snorted, in obvious amusement. “Hardly… it was my shiftless son who dropped in unexpectedly two years ago.”

  “Are you telling me that Vice Admiral John Masterson is not your son?” asked Nuland.

  “Some investigators you two are!” Ms. Masterson laughed. “If my son was a vice admiral, don’t you think I’d know it? Besides, if any son of mine were to associate himself with the military-industrial complex, I’d disown him. My John Masterson knows better than that!”

  “Do you have any idea where your son might be right now, Ms. Masterson?” asked Meltzer.

  “None. He’s always been a bit of a gypsy. He could be almost anywhere in the Alliance. I have absolutely no idea when, or where, he’s going to turn up next.”

  “Interplanetary travel isn’t cheap. Can you tell us how your son makes his living?” asked Nuland.

  “I never asked, and he never said. He’s always seemed to survive somehow,” said Ms. Masterson. “He never demonstrated any particular talent, so I sometimes wondered if at some point, he hadn’t ended up on his knees, giving blowjobs to rich perverts.”

  * * * *

  “Strange woman,” said ABI Special Agent Diana Meltzer. “You’d almost think she’d actually pre
fer the idea of her son working as a male prostitute, rather than doing anything associated with the military for a living.”

  “I don’t know how much help that picture she gave us of her son is going to be,” said Nuland. “Damned odd that she didn’t have any pictures of him more recent than age 12.”

  “Almost like she stopped considering him her son, when he entered puberty,” replied Meltzer. “You think there was something about his approaching sexual maturity, that she found threatening?”

  “No telling. But now we aren’t even sure if her son is the right John Masterson,” responded Nuland.

  “Well, this is where the trail that Admiral Masterson’s last ‘next of kin’ address on Indinara, that we found listed in his personnel jacket, led us.”

  “If it is the same guy, at least we might have finally found a possible motive for his wanting to disappear.”

  “Yeah? What’s that?” asked Meltzer.

  “If that bitch was my mother, I’d want to disappear too!”

  * * * *

  Chapter-14

  One is never sure, watching two cats washing each other, whether it’s affection, the taste, or a trial run for the jugular. — Helen Thomson

  The Raknii Imperial Planet of Raku

  November, 3867

  The Raknii finally had a new type of fleet… new warships and weapons systems designed and developed from information learned after Tzal’s initial encounter with humans at Minnos cycles earlier, were gathered at Raku by Xior’s order. Many ships of the old design had undergone a major weapons upgrade, now boasting three single 6-gigawatt energy weapons turrets, replacing their three twin, 3-gigawatt turrets from before. Larger reactors couldn’t be retrofitted into the old hulls, so this compromise allowed for the same amount of wattage to be thrown from fewer, but more powerful weapons, having correspondingly greater range. They were tentatively calling these converted older ships destroyers, as that was the closest designation comparable to human ships that they knew of.

  This new fleet wasn’t impressive in overall numbers, when compared to how many ships of the old design still existed, but those had proven ineffectual against the human’s armored warships. Nor were they on nearly the same technological levels as the alien’s weapons and armor demonstrated recently. But Rak manufactories had responded with remarkable vigor and produced significant numbers, when compared to those the aliens had yet shown. After completion of intensive crew training and equipment testing, these new assets had been brought to the Raknii home world of Raku and organized into combat units while awaiting specific field assignments, according to the perceived need.

  On top of everything else, Blug was being a pain under the tail again… causing the supreme-master difficulties that a warrior in his delicate health didn’t need. Blug used his indignation at having those incompetents that he’d sent to the Imperial fleet expelled, as an excuse to stop sending ships of any kind or quality to support the war against the humans, and thus, a notable disparity was developing in the carefully balanced strength ratios normally maintained between regions. The Empire simply could not afford for Blug’s ego to get out of paw and distract other regions away from focusing all of their energies towards defense of their systems against the inexorable human advance.

  Of all the regions, Blug’s was one of the least directly threatened by the human onslaught, yet messages arrived almost daily from Region-4. Blug was inexplicably whining the loudest, demanding that much of these precious new fleet assets be assigned to protect his region and personal hide from the aliens he feared would be crawling out from under his sleeping pad at any moment. Now it appeared to Xior that the best thing he could do with those new assets was to grant Blug’s illogical demands for many of these new assets — not to protect him from aliens, but to protect his neighbors from him.

  So Xior summoned Ultimate-FleetMaster Tzal, and issued his orders to him personally, to maximize the strength of the hypnotic compulsion to obey those orders, regardless of whatever demands that Blug might seek to impose on him. For the first time in history, Imperial fleet units would not be subject to the orders of the local region-master, but would continue to operate independently, executing orders originating with the supreme-master himself. Tzal commanded what was again the most powerful fleet in Raknii military history, not in numbers this time, but in sheer firepower. At Xior’s specific command, Tzal took this fleet of new ships and departed for the Region-4 capital at Slithin.

  Supreme-Master Xior was losing his battle against the wasting disease that was slowly killing him. He continued losing weight, having little appetite, and regurgitating most of what little food he did manage to get down. Between what the radiation treatments were doing to his body, simple malnutrition and lack of sleep from chronic pain, Xior was in an almost constant state of almost total exhaustion. That pain made it difficult for him to think clearly and the painkillers prescribed by his physicians often made it even harder. Xior was dying and there was nothing that his physicians could do, or that Dol seemed willing to do, to stop it. It was almost time for Xior to summon his heir to Raku. Not quite yet, but almost.

  * * * *

  The Alliance Planetoid of Discol, City of Waston

  November, 3867

  It galled ABI Director Fredrick J. Danforth to yet again be forced to inform the president that there had been still been no break in their search for what had happened to her military attaché, Vice Admiral John “Bat” Masterson. The trail had been two years cold by the time those newshounds first discovered that the initial report had been bogus, as had all of the quarterly updates on his alleged injuries and anyone had realized that anything was amiss.

  Archival records showed that a ticket to Indinalis aboard a TransWorld Spacelines flight, had indeed been bought in Masterson’s name at the beginning of his personal leave, and that a body had definitely traveled in that seat on that flight. Someone had flown from Waston to Indinalis aboard that flight, but had it actually been Masterson?

  Whoever it was that had filed that report and those follow-ups had left no discernable computer trail that Danforth’s ABI specialists had been able to track. That smacked of computer expertise at a governmental level. Masterson was himself a bona-fide computer expert and a former counter-intelligence analyst, so was it possible that Masterson might have staged his disappearance himself? He certainly had the expertise, but what possible motive?

  After a court-ordered search warrant was issued, it was discovered that the apartment listed as Masterson’s residence in his Fleet records, and for which the monthly rent was being automatically withdrawn from Masterson’s bank account, was empty. Not a single item of furniture or personal item of any kind was found there. Another curious thing — other than the automatic withdrawals set up to pay his monthly bills like rent, utilities, etc., Vice Admiral Masterson’s bank account hadn’t been touched since those TransWorld Spacelines tickets to Indinara had been purchased back in June of 3865. Monthly deposits of his Fleet paycheck continued going in, but not single withdrawal had been made. His debit card hadn’t been used for a single withdrawal, so if he hadn’t been abducted, how was he living? Or, a more ominous possibility… was he still living?

  The bottom line was, Masterson had effectively disappeared into thin air and the ABI didn’t have the slightest clue as how it had happened, who had instigated it, or where Masterson might be now. The president wasn’t happy and the brass hats over at the Heptagon weren’t happy — all of which meant that ABI Director Fredrick J. Danforth most definitely wasn’t happy. Unfortunately, the other thing that Fred didn’t have the slightest clue about, was what else he might possibly do about it.

  * * * *

  The Rak Planet Vnayrk

  December, 3867

  Drix and N’raal’s new log mansion was complete, and once again Hal put up a Christmas tree in what he called the family room… a great open gathering area with a high arched ceiling with log beams and a massive stone fireplace at one end. Hal’s Christ
mas decorations were even more extensive in this new residence than the year before, with eye-pleasing sprigs of greenery, red berries and brown seedpods, tastefully adorning even the most remote corners. Strangely, even with the author of Christmas trees so recently being the object of death threats, reasonable facsimiles of Christmas trees oddly began appearing unprompted in other places and other buildings, as though it were a new, impromptu fashion statement.

  The threats against Hal had subsided over time, as the Raknii of the compound became more accustomed to the concept that their military had suffered crushing defeats in almost every engagement they had fought against humans. Drix lowered the number of Raknaa bodyguards stationed around Hal down to four, but he still took no chances with the safety of such a wealth of information concerning human morality and ethics. Hal was a great help in assisting Drix to compose his new code of ethics for the Raknii people, and at times it had sometimes felt like they had established a full partnership in the monumental endeavor.

  Reports received from Raan seemed to indicate that the humans were indeed working their way through Raknii space towards Region-4, and the targets they’d intentionally left on those planted star charts intended to bait them there. It appeared that much of the human ship movements were transports… targets vulnerable to Raknii attack, but Raan wisely ordered his forces to remain hidden instead of irritating the enemy with nuisance raids against their logistics. No sense advertising the massive Raknii presence within those supposed life-voids, which might prompt the humans to look for the bases where those raiders had originated.

  Evacuation of those new Raknii worlds closest to human worlds was almost complete. They couldn’t be held, and withdrawal seemed the only logical choice left to them. Safety for the Rak now depended on remaining hidden from their implacable human enemies — a fact that galled the Raknii everywhere, but a fact, nevertheless.