“It’s been a long trip,” spoke Hedon, taking a sip of hot coffee and looking over at Colonel Sheen, who was sitting on a small couch.
“But we’re on our way back home and making better time than we did originally,” Amanda replied with a friendly nod. She was drinking a glass of ice tea and enjoying some time away from the Command Center. It was good to get away from all of that stress and responsibility, even if it was only for just a few precious hours.
“We should make it back in two more weeks,” responded Hedon, leaning forward and placing his coffee cup down on a small table.
He had been drinking too much coffee recently. It was becoming harder each night to get a good night’s sleep. That nagging fear that something was wrong in Federation space just wouldn’t go away. Twice the previous night he had awoken to a cold sweat, feeling that something was seriously wrong. He had even contacted Major Trist in the Command Center to confirm that everything was okay.
“What’s going to happen to the Federation?” Amanda asked worriedly, feeling concern for the safety of her parents and Richard. In her deep blue eyes was a hint of fear. “The Hocklyns evidently control an empire of slave worlds. I just wish we knew how large. Do you have any idea how soon it will be until the technicians and scientists have the hard drives downloaded?”
“They already do,” responded Hedon, folding his arms across his chest and recalling the com message he had received earlier in the day. “Not only that, but Ariel and Clarissa have finished translating the message we received from the blue skinned aliens as we were leaving their system. They have also started decoding what was on the hard drives. We lucked out as the message from the aliens also contained a primer for the Hocklyn’s own language.”
“Then we should know shortly,” Amanda spoke, her brow creasing slightly as she thought of the ramifications.
She felt nervous at finally being able to find out what the Federation was up against. If Admiral Kinseth was correct, they should still have several months after the StarStrike returned before they could expect another Hocklyn attack. This information might enable them to deal with that attack while they continued to rebuild the fleet and strengthen the defenses around all the inhabited worlds of the Federation.
Hedon leaned forward, and his voice changed to an extremely serious and worried tone. “Amanda, I don’t like this. For several weeks now, I have had a very apprehensive feeling that we have missed something. I feel as if the Federation is in extreme danger.”
Amanda was silent for a moment. She knew that Admiral Streth had these feelings on occasion. Sometimes she wondered if he wasn’t somewhat psychic. There had been a few very rare cases of this reported in the Federation. His tactical ability was phenomenal. He was the highest rated admiral in the fleet. Perhaps he was one of those special people.
“You think the Federation might be in danger?” asked Amanda, feeling slightly faint as she thought about her parents and Richard.
She hoped they weren’t in any immediate danger. But if the admiral felt something was wrong back home, then they needed to get back as soon as possible. Perhaps they should abandon the dogleg course back they were using. If the Hocklyns had managed to assemble another fleet and launch a new attack then the Federation could be in serious trouble.
Hedon didn’t respond for a long moment. Then a pained and sad look appeared on his face. He drew in a deep breath. “I just feel as if the Federation is in grave danger. We have to know what’s in that data. Ariel thought that she and Clarissa would have a report for us early tomorrow.”
Amanda looked across the admiral’s quarters. The walls were covered with photos of Maken and other sites across Federation space. There was even a breath-taking picture of New Providence as seen from the shipyard. A picture of the admiral’s brother Taylor and his brother’s wife Lendle graced the wall behind where the admiral was sitting.
Pursing her lips, she replied, “Perhaps we will know tomorrow what is causing you to be so worried about the Federation.”
Hedon picked up his coffee cup and took a long sip as he thought about his options. “When you get back to the Command Center, I want you to contact Lieutenant Ashton on the Victory. She is our best navigation officer. I need her to plot a new series of maximum range jumps back to the Federation.”
“Doglegged?” asked Amanda raising her eyes to look at the admiral. Now she was genuinely starting to feel concerned. “We could get back faster if we abandon that. I know it’s safer, but if we need to get back quickly it might be worth the risk.”
“Not doglegged,” replied Hedon shaking his head. “We need to get back to Federation space as soon as possible. I also want to increase the number of jumps per day from four to five.”
Amanda nodded her head slowly. “That will put us back inside Federation space in six to seven days. What if the Hocklyns are waiting for us somewhere along the way?”
“I think that’s the least of our worries,” Hedon replied, his eyes taking on a haunted look. “If we encounter the Hocklyns, we will have to fight our way through them. Nothing must stop us from reaching home.”
Amanda stood up setting her almost empty glass of tea down. “I will go do it now if you feel it’s that important.”
“It is, Amanda,” replied Hedon, closing his eyes briefly and wishing that horrible, nagging feeling would go away. “We need to get back.” He just hoped it wasn’t too late.
-
They had just completed another jump when Admiral Streth called the command group to a meeting in the main conference room on the StarStrike. Colonel Sheen called Major Trist to the Command Center and turned command of the StarStrike over to him as she hurried to the meeting. She had noticed several small shuttles en route, bringing the rest of the command group to the ship. She knew that this meeting must mean that the information from the Hocklyn’s hard drives had been decoded.
Reaching the conference room, she paused to gather her breath. Perhaps she would finally learn how big the Hocklyn threat was to the Federation and her family. She hoped her mom and dad would never have to hide in the large basement beneath the house. Admiral Streth’s concerns had frightened her. If he was worried something was wrong back home, then she wanted to get back as quickly as possible. She had slept very little, worrying about what the admiral had said. Pushing the door open, she stepped inside, seeing that Admiral Streth, Commander Adler, and several of the civilian scientists that had accompanied them on their mission were already seated.
“Have a seat, Colonel,” Admiral Streth spoke. “The others should be here shortly.”
Amanda sat down across from the admiral and glancing up at the large viewscreen on the wall, noticed that Ariel’s avatar was watching her. During her time on the StarStrike, she hadn’t had the opportunity to deal much with the AI’s that were in the fleet. However, from recent events, she was beginning to realize just how valuable they were.
A few minutes later, everyone was in the room. Admiral Streth reached forward and took a long sip of water from the glass that was setting in front of him. Placing the glass back down, he stood up. Everyone looked at him expectantly.
“According to Ariel and the civilian scientists, we have translated enough of the information from the captured computer hard drives to make an assessment of what the Federation is up against,” Hedon informed them, looking over at the screen and Ariel.
“We have also translated the entire message from the Clarions that we received as we were leaving the vicinity of their planet,” Ariel added.
“Clarions,” Commander Standel spoke curiously. He looked intently at Ariel. “Is that what the blue skinned aliens call themselves?”
“Yes,” responded Ariel, her dark eyes gazing back at Commander Standel. “They were a peaceful society until the Hocklyns attacked them a little over ninety years ago.”
“What happened?” Hedon asked as he sat back down. Perhaps that information would give them more insight as to what was in store for the Federation.
<
br /> “The Hocklyns appeared in orbit around the Clarion’s home planet ninety one years ago,” Ariel began in a calm voice. “The Clarions had already begun exploring the closest star systems to them and were discussing the possibility of establishing a colony on a new habitable world they had recently discovered. They were quite excited when the Hocklyns appeared, until the nuclear weapons started falling.”
“Nuclear weapons,” Standel responded with disgust in his voice.
“The Hocklyns didn’t even try to communicate?” Commander Wisthom asked, his mind aghast at the thought of the unprovoked nuclear attack Ariel was describing.
“Not at first,” Ariel replied, her dark eyes taking on a despondent look. “The Hocklyns eliminated nearly eighty percent of the planet’s population in less than twenty-four hours. They destroyed all the major cities, leaving only the smaller rural communities as well as some medium sized municipalities intact. The Hocklyns finally opened up communications with the survivors and informed them that they were now part of the Hocklyn Empire.”
“A slave empire,” Commander Standel muttered unhappily.
“Yes, a slave empire,” Ariel confirmed evenly. Her eyes looked across the group. “The Hocklyns gave the Clarions a list of products and raw materials they were expected to produce. They were told to send this cargo up to a space station the Hocklyns would put in orbit. The Clarions were also expected to furnish crews for the freighters and the mining operations the Hocklyns would be setting up. That was ninety-one years ago. Their population has been allowed to grow slowly, but no new technology is allowed to be introduced.”
“We can’t allow that to happen to the worlds of the Federation!” Commander Adler spoke in a determined voice, his eyes sweeping across the small group. “We will show these Hocklyns they have attacked the wrong worlds this time.”
“Perhaps not, Commander,” Ariel said with a hopeless look upon her face. She wasn’t happy with what she was about to say. She wished she knew a better way to tell the command group what Clarissa and she had discovered.
Amanda became extremely worried and attentive. She had never seen one of the AIs with such a forlorn look before. It was the same look a doctor had when he was about to tell a patient that there was nothing else that could be done to preserve their life.
“What is it, Ariel?” asked Admiral Streth, feeling a cold chill spread over him. He had a cold foreboding feeling that he was about to learn what had been nagging him the last few weeks.
“The Human Federation of Worlds cannot defeat the Hocklyns,” Ariel began her dark eyes focusing on Admiral Streth.
“What!” interrupted Commander Wisthom, standing up defiantly. “Why not? We destroyed the four fleets they sent against us the first time.”
Ariel's face disappeared from the main viewscreen to appear on one of the smaller ones next to it. A view of the galaxy appeared on the main screen. In the center of the galaxy, a small sphere of bright white was present. From the perimeter of the sphere four separate colors extended out, covering nearly half the galaxy.
“The red color is the section of the galaxy controlled by the Hocklyns,” Ariel informed them, her face looking pale and distant. “The other three colors are the different sections of the galaxy controlled by three other war like races. The Hocklyns themselves control several thousand inhabited worlds. They also have a war fleet numbering in the thousands to ensure those worlds stay under their control as well as to allow for future expansion of their empire.”
The conference room became deathly quiet. It seemed as if no one was breathing. Only the sound of the air coming through the vents was audible.
“Thousands of warships,” Commander Standel repeated not wanting to believe what Ariel had just said. However, he had worked with the AI on his ship long enough to know she wouldn’t report this if she didn’t believe it to be true.
“We have time,” sputtered Commander Wisthom staring at the viewscreen, not wanting to believe what Ariel was showing them. “It will take the Hocklyns months to gather a large enough fleet to conquer our worlds. We can build more ships and strengthen the defense grids in that time. Surely we can hold out against them.”
“If it was only the Hocklyns, it might be possible,” Ariel responded, her eyes taking on a haunted and fearful look. “The problem is their masters.”
“Their masters?” questioned Commander Adler, looking confused. “What do you mean their masters?”
“From what Clarissa and I have been able to learn from the captured hard drives, thousands of years ago there was a very advanced race of humanoids that lived near the center of our galaxy.” She didn’t like what she was about to reveal. It might cause the humans in the fleet to look at her and Clarissa in a much different light.
“An advanced race of humanoids,” Admiral Streth repeated with a frown, his eyes narrowing. “Do they control the Hocklyns? What happened?”
“They spread out over hundreds of worlds and may have been the most advanced society ever to exist in our galaxy,” Ariel continued, her gaze focusing once more on the admiral. “They explored much of our galaxy. One of their crowning achievements was building true AIs to help grow and expand their worlds and their civilization.”
“AIs,” Commander Wisthom spoke. Then he looked questionably at the viewscreen, which was now showing Ariel’s avatar again. “Similar to you and Clarissa?”
“Not quite,” Ariel responded evenly. “As the years passed, the race began to turn more and more of the responsibility of running their worlds over to the AIs. There is no clear record of what happened, but the race that created the AIs died out about ten to twelve thousand years ago. For a while nothing changed, and the AI’s continued to take care of their creator’s worlds.”
“Following their last orders,” Hedon spoke, slowly nodding his head in understanding. He had a terrible suspicion what Ariel was going to say next.
“The AIs continued to take care of the worlds that had been entrusted to them for hundreds of years. Then suddenly they burst out of the center of the galaxy in ships so advanced that no race could stand up to them. They conquered hundreds and then thousands of worlds. They chose four warrior races to run and grow their empire. The Hocklyns, the Shari, the Borzon, and the Ralift. Each is responsive for about a fourth of the AI’s empire.”
“They’re attempting to conquer our entire galaxy,” Commander Standel said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Why?”
“No one knows,” answered Ariel, wishing that she did.
“Do we know what the AI ships look like?” Admiral Streth asked in a quiet and subdued voice. This revelation by Ariel about the AIs was something far beyond anything he had considered even remotely possible.
“Yes,” replied Ariel as a massive warship appeared on the main viewscreen.
The ship was a sphere with small structures covering its entire surface. There were no obvious signs of propulsion or weapons.
“This is the primary warship of the AIs,” Ariel informed them. “The ship is 1500 meters in diameter. It is armed with powerful energy weapons and an energy shield that supposedly no weapon can penetrate. Just one of these ships alone could probably defeat the entire Human Federation of World’s fleet.”
“Just one ship?” asked Commander Standel, looking at the screen his face showing shock.
“Yes, just one ship,” confirmed Ariel, nodding her head. “The AIs seem content to allow their four warrior races to continue to grow their empire. All they demand is that each race sends them certain raw materials and supplies yearly. What the AIs are doing with this is unknown. The AI ships only show up when there is a crisis or when they need to communicate with the leaders of one of their four warrior races. If there is a serious threat to their empire, they eliminate the cause of that danger
“What are we going to do?” Amanda spoke into the silence, feeling as if she was about to throw up. This was her worst nightmare come true. “We can’t let our worlds die.”
Admiral Streth
was quiet for a moment as he weighed the options that might be available to the Federation. None were good. If the information Ariel had just shared with them was accurate, then the Federation was looking at total defeat. They would be forced into the Hocklyn’s slave empire or risk their worlds being destroyed by the AIs.
“We have to leave,” Commander Standel spoke, his eyes growing wide as he realized what their only option was. “We have to evacuate as many people as possible from our worlds and travel as far away from the Hocklyn Slave Empire as possible. We have to construct new colonies at the very edge of our galaxy and build up our strength for a future conflict with the Hocklyns. There is nothing else we can do.”
Admiral Streth looked down at the table. He took a long breath and thought about the commander’s words. Standel might be right. The future of mankind might no longer be in the Federation. He just wondered if they had the time to evacuate enough people to make a difference.
“We must get back to the Federation and present this information to Admiral Kinseth and the Federation Council,” he spoke as everyone listened. “They will have to make this decision, and I fear it will not be an easy one.”
-
For the next few days, the fleet jumped rapidly back toward the Federation. Each day after each jump, they expected to find the Hocklyns waiting for them. But as they scanned system after system, there was no sign of the Hocklyns. Of course, they were jumping into systems with suns that were not likely to contain inhabited planets. However, if the Hocklyns were searching for them, they should have posted sentries in even those systems. Something just didn’t seem right.
-
Lieutenant Arcles and Lieutenant Barnes were sitting in the officer’s mess aboard the Avenger eating a light meal together. They had been doing this more often recently particularly considering the ramifications of the war with the Hocklyns.
“I was talking to Ariel earlier,” Teena commented as she buttered a warm roll. One thing she could say about the Avenger was that the food was good. “She is sounding more human every day. Sometimes I find it hard to believe she is an AI.”
The Slaver Wars: Alien Contact Page 24