Righteous Reign

by MacDonald, Thomas J

  "Have communications get me a secured line to the Grenada, please?' Bryant ordered; and clicked off. 'Commodore Tonaka, can you come to my office, immediately, please?" He had activated communication to her.

  "Aye, Admiral." Came the response.

  Tonaka walked in just as Stevens called in about a minute later.

  "Tom, I have Grace here. We've picked up weapons fire closing on us at bearing three, four, five by elevation seven and a half. They seem to have detected us; but, are unsure of distance. They seem to be using weapons fire for ranging. It appears they will be in range in about eight minutes. I will have Grace split Columbia Group into Squads; but, hold this location. I would like you to split Grenada Group. Send one squad to the left flank the other to the right. Whoever they are, they are headed right at Columbia. They're only about a quarter light year out. You'll have to get an exact trajectory and jump each squad; so, you catch them by surprise. I need to know your exact execution time. We will jump the two squads of the Columbia to a point half way between us and the intruder, shortly after you go to FTL. Based on their pattern of short jumps, they will make one more stop-and-shoot exit; before making, the final jump that takes them to us. So, our jump should put us right at their exit aperture as they emerge. With you coming at them from slightly behind and to the sides, we should be able to overwhelm them; even if, they are a much larger force." Bryant ordered.

  "Aye, sir." The response came over his communicator at the same moment launch times and trajectory courses came in for the Grenada squads' jumps. George punched in the numbers; did a few calculations of his own; and, pointed out the Columbia launch times and trajectories to Grace.

  "I got your info, Tom. That's approved. We've programmed our jumps. I'm sending our schedule and courses to you, now." He said as Grace waved herself out of his office quietly tapping on her data pad to issue orders to her group.

  Bryant watched out the view window as Grenada split into two; each squad heading towards different jump points. As they jumped out, he felt the Columbia begin to move. There was the familiar lurch of a jump. Then, just as suddenly, they exited the vortex directly in the path of a small fleet of vessels. George had never seen this design before. Most were relatively saucer shaped. A couple had the form of large cigars. Still others were orbs. He wasn't sure whether or not they had a lot less decks or the inhabitants were very small; but, the crafts were very slim and sleek. From keel to top, they were no more than thirty meters in height. Each saucer was about three hundred meters in diameter. If the intruders were similar to humans in size, these vessels could only be two or three decks in height; suggesting, a relatively small crew.

  The Columbia rocked a little as a kind of rolling thunder sounded through her interior. She was hit by weapons fire at the moment of exit from the jump. Bryant saw about eighty fighters launch from her sides in a period of about five minutes. It was obvious, Grace was holding a reasonable reserve force still; and, was proud that they could launch two fighter craft every seven and a half seconds. Bolts of particle charges whizzed through space; as, the two forces exchanged fire. The Columbia and her heavy Cruiser fired deadly salvos of spears. As he scanned the space around them, Bryant could see the light group off to their port side; and, observed a large chunk of the interloping force breaking from the main body to head for it. Fifty Columbia Raptor class fighters headed for that force; while thirty remained with the original body. Meanwhile, he could see that, Grace was still hitting the two assemblages with streams of continuous weapons fire from all cannon banks; as the Columbia Group took continuous blows from the intruders. Her many cannon placements were aimed at multiple vessels and distributed to multiple points on each one; as were those of her accompanying Cruiser and Frigates.

  Suddenly, the two additional squads came up on the rear of the enemy from each side presenting a hail of rounds from a different vantage point. Grenada launched another eighty raptors. These split into two; heading to positions that supported both fighting squads. Within a couple of minutes all of Boots Fleet was firing in at the superior force; which was now on the defensive. But, the enemy returned volleys at a similar rate. The flickers, streaks and flares from exchanged salvos of weapons fire resembled a nighttime fireworks display; lighting up the battlefield, like a bright summer day. There was a sudden fusion flare as the Minneapolis from the Columbia Group went up like an exploding star. Then the Cleveland from the Grenada Group went up, an instant later. That was two frigates in a matter of minutes.

  Bryant sent an urgent communiqué to his two Group Commanders. "Use of anti-matter weapons is authorized. - Bryant."

  He could see all four squads beginning to back off a little from the opposing force; as, they continued to pour weapons fire in on their nemesis. Of course, their adversary would think they were winning this skirmish; but, in reality, the force was giving ground; so, they would not be hurt by their own weapons. Once, there was a ring of one hundred kilometers empty space between them and the opposition, the Columbia and Grenada Groups fired two missiles from each craft in their Groups. When they detonated like super novae, each one of these weapons destroyed an enemy vessel in a series of twenty-eight fusions flares much like those of the Minneapolis and Cleveland; filling the space with debris and wreckage of all types; each fragment travelling on its own deadly trajectory. The remaining five vessels attempted to regroup; but, the Fleet kept piling on the conventional fire; disabling one ship after another. As the brilliant flashes diminished, George could see the remnants of partial hulls floating through the void careening off each other, in unpredictable ways; accompanied by, an enormous amount of flotsam and garbage that is so integral to peoples’ lives; and, bodies, that cluttered the entire battlefield.

  He texted again. "Recover one or two complete enemy bodies; and, return them immediately to the Columbia. - Bryant.' Then, he added. 'It would not be bad to have one intact ship, too."

  He needed to begin an investigation of the invaders immediately. This was a fairly major force.

  The battle took a different turn, now. It was much more measured, from a Boots Fleet point of view. They were trying to disable the enemy vessels without destroying them; but, without accepting too much more mutilation of their own ships or people. One of the frigates and three newly launched Raptors took up positions to protect a recovery shuttle that moved into the outskirts of the battlefield. Meanwhile, another enemy ship flared into oblivion; while a second went completely dark; after a spear, fired by Grenada, penetrated deep amidships. If it wasn't playing dead, this ship could be a great capture.

  "Grace, send a strong force of Marines to board that vessel. Make sure they're well covered; in case, we need to destroy it." He ordered.

  Half an hour later, two enemy bodies were being moved to sickbay; as a Cruiser began to take the secured enemy ship in tow. The entire remaining Boots Fleet was left fighting three damaged enemy vessels. Supply vessels went in and out of the battle area resupplying various vessels; while the enemy was now having great difficulty maintaining the battle.

  "Grace and Tom, let's finish it. We have two bodies and a captured ship. Let's not risk any more of our people or ships." Bryant said as he directed his communication to both of them.

  Boots' weapons fire increased dramatically as they moved further out. Then, a single anti-matter torpedo was directed at each vessel. Thirty seconds later, they had been vaporized. The battle was over.

  A communiqué from Nichols indicated that, George and all three Flag officers were requested in the Medical Bay. Bryant logged off, heading out along the corridors. He met up with Grace and Stephen on the way.

  "I ordered my Exec to meet Admiral Stevens in the shuttle Bay." Nichols said.

  The three waited in the hallway outside Sick Bay, for Stevens. Tom arrived about fifteen minutes later. It had taken time for the Grenada to jump back to the Fleet and shuttle him over.

  "Welcome, Tom. I can only assume that, this is about our two dead enemy combatants." Grace offered.
>
  "Can we go in and see?" He asked.

  They were met inside by a flitting, nervous Lieutenant Commander Hajt, the Chief Medical Officer; who seemed over-excited in anticipation of something.

  "None of you are going to believe this.' Hajt said excitedly forgetting all protocol. 'This answers questions we've had for maybe - three centuries."

  "Get on with it, Commander.' Tonaka ordered. 'And next time, you follow protocol, when you meet a senior officer.

  Hajt walked them over to a gurney; hesitated for effect; then, slowly pulled the sheet back from over the face of the body. There was a collective gasp of surprise.

  Its finely wrinkled skin was so gray - it was nearly silver in color. Massive almond shaped closed eyelids slanted upwards towards the sides of the head. Two nostrils exited a slight rise in the front of the face between and below the inner corners of the large eyes. Thin gray-blue lips formed a narrow mouth.

  Hajt continued to withdraw the sheet; revealing a delicate frame about four and a half feet in height and proportionately small relative to the head. The entire body could not have weighed more than thirty-five kilograms. Spindly arms came from articulating shoulders and were hinged by an elbow and terminated by a rotary wrist ending in a narrow palmed hand sporting four elongated fingers. Thins legs looked barely able to support the small frame and ended in relatively long feet with three toes.

  "As near as we can tell, they are bipedal; but, not very physically active. They have very large brain casing and four-lobed brains. Vocal cords are present; but, seem underused. They can talk; but, probably don't do it much. We think they employ telepathic communications most of the time. They seem to be the very creatures that were described for so long by those we all thought were short a few cards in their decks." Hajt chuckled; as he finished the summary.

  "Yes, it would appear you're right' Bryant responded. 'But, the question is, why would an advanced civilization, who have been space faring much longer than us, suddenly attack after spending a few centuries studying us peacefully. Their perception must have been that, something has changed. Somehow, we scared the hell out of them. We'll need to see what we get from that vessel; we took in tow." Bryant finished as he turned and led them out of Sick Bay.

  "Let's meet in the Flag Boardroom in twenty minutes. I would like all our Chiefs there, along with the head of the team studying the captured vessel." Bryant ordered as he turned down the corridor.

  "Lieutenant Commander Ireland give us your report on the enemy ship." Bryant ordered.

  "Aye sir. As you know we have engineering heading a large team to analyze it. We haven't had a lot of time; so, this is somewhat preliminary. First of all, we took three live prisoners from the disabled vessel. Overall, these ships would be more powerful than ours if, they had as much power to draw on. They have a much more robust shielding system and better weaponry; both limited by power supply; which appears to be undersized. However, the spear that penetrated their hull went right through that part of engineering; so, it will take more work to be sure of their generating capacity. Particle weapons are limited in range because of this energy deficiency. Shields are more powerful, but easily overloaded. We should adapt them for our ships. The biggest thing in our favor, at this point, is our anti-matter weapons. They have no defense to it; and, they seem to have no analog to it in their immediate arsenal.' Ireland finished his summary; then, added. 'Of course, we'll have more for you as we dig deeper. This is only the start."

  "Does anyone have any views on this incursion?" Bryant asked.

  "Yes sir. I think it was a probe. A test to see how strong our defenses really are." Nichols piped in.

  "Captain, I think you're right. For some reason, the Grays are thinking of invading. I know that, if I was sending a probe, it wouldn't be larger than, five percent of my total capacity; so I believe that, we are speaking of a force that’s at least twenty times what we saw. Moe, do you have the proposal on Fleet expansions, yet?" Bryant asked his chief.

  "Yes sir, I have a proposal that lays out both ideas; but, recommends the enlarged groups and balanced squads. I will forward it to you." He responded.

  "Not yet. I'd like you to incorporate this battle into it, as an example. We lost two frigates and over two thousand lives, today. In both cases, they were frigates in the weak squadrons. A case can be made that; this loss could have been avoided with the proper balance. Those ships would have been protected better. What was the conclusion in your report?” Bryant asked.

  "Sir, I took the liberty of using the point of view of completing deployment of the subs; and adding two carriers and two cruisers to each Fleet. I also allowed for the Task Force Commands and the Squad Command level. It includes the inflation of the Fleet Level Marines to the Division level; under, a Major General and all the appropriate new Commands and additions to Commands and Senior levels that would be required. With the subs, this expansion does double our capabilities; but, represents an increase of only thirty percent in personnel and assets. It is definitely the most cost efficient way to increase strength." The Chief finished.

  "Good. Add the information on this battle. Send it to me. I'll edit it. You revise and resubmit; and, we'll get this off to the Quadrant tomorrow afternoon with the reports on this battle. It's a lot of work; but, I know you can do it." Bryant said with a smile.

  Bryant put pressure on science teams to glean as much from the recovered craft, bodies and prisoners, as possible. One of the live captives spoke English. This was not really a surprise; since, the team believed they had been visiting Earth for centuries. Over the next few hours, a computer team discovered home system charts that seemed to indicate Lambda Bootis was home planet to the grays. However, it was not the main star inside Empire space. From Earth and Rigil, the OESA had been unaware this was a binary system; because of the brightness of the main star which is blue white twenty-five times the brightness of Sol. It turned out to have a yellow orange K classified star in an eccentric orbit around it that kept the secondary outside Empire space, most of the time. Though it would be one to two light years inside our territory for a short portion of its orbital period, it spent the majority of its time from there to four light years outside our borders. From the center of our territory it either cannot be seen because of its parent star or is outside our territory and appears of no consequence. The Empire had always been very definite on border determination; and so, spent very little time and resources on systems even slightly beyond its borders. So, we had just missed the fact that, there was an intelligent space faring species inhabiting two planets in a system right on our border that was part of a wider system inside our territory.

  George requested that; Tom Stevens, Grace Tonaka and Marie Ste. Laurent meet him in the brig of the Columbia.

  "What's up boss?" Stevens asked, after the three had paid their respects.

  "I am a little worried that this little test of our defensive capabilities was not without cause. I've received information that these grays are from a system right on our border. I am afraid that, they may have innocently misconstrued our intentions. They may have felt a major attack was a necessity and this was the test to precede it. I want to send Marie in with one of them. They speak English; so, coax a little out of it, Marie. We need them aware of the fact that, we know this was only a test; and that, a more powerful attack will follow. But, we need them to believe that, we see ourselves as a peaceful species; and so, we are baffled and do not understand the reason for the attack. I think Marie will be convincing, I believe she is the one to prod them into talking. We shall just observe. Are you okay with that, Lieutenant?" Bryant directed the question directly at Marie.

  "Yes sir; but, why do you feel we brought this on?" She asked curiously.

  "...just a hunch, Marie. You'd better get a move on. A fleet could be on the way, right now." Bryant gently steered her toward the cell door with pressure on her shoulder as he finished.

  Marie's interrogation took over an hour. For half an hour the alien did n
ot respond, at all. It seemed to be her genuine concern for its well-being that softened it. Once there was a dialogue, it took half an hour to get to any meaningful details. She spent fifteen additional minutes getting specifics and confirming everything; then, exited the cell.

  "Sir, the Empire's rapid expansion to their system is what has them worried. They believe we are an aggressive hostile species. I reminded him of their visits over many centuries; and of the fact that we have empathy and compassion as good attributes to mediate our bad ones. I explained that, the expansion was relatively peaceful. That, we negotiated the memberships into the Empire. Argat, our alien, says that the real fear was created by the fact that we moved so fast and are governed by a dictatorship. I explained that, the people chose our form of government to prevent the paralysis of previous ones. I also pointed out that it is not a dictatorship but a cooperative government with democratic representation. Argat explained that the two incidents at Rho convinced them it is a military backed dictatorship. I explained to him that a vast majority of Rho citizens want membership in the Empire and a very small percentage of the population started a civil war, each time. I explained that, the rebels based their division on a philosophical point of view; something that caused widespread destruction, suffering and death in Earth's past - because of that, it is the Empire's policy to eradicate that type of rebellion. I offered Argat our constitution, bill of rights and criminal code to study, if he wanted. Argat is male, by the way; and, he was in command of the vessel we took him from and second in command of the mission." Marie finished.

  "Marie, would you go back in and ask if he would speak to me for a few minutes? You may tell him who I am and my position, here." Bryant suggested.

  "Aye, sir." She responded as she turned to the cell.