by Saxon Andrew
“No, I’m not; but it takes more than one ship and they come in at an incredible speed. You would think the ship would burn up in the atmosphere but the heat of entry actually helps the Weg’s ship penetrate the planet’s surface.”
Josh watched the video of a Weg ship hitting a planet and winced when it hit, “You mean to tell me they crash into the surface and survive the impact?”
Rumel nodded, “Our scientists have no way to explain how that happens. However, the crater from the impact is much smaller than it should be with an object that big hitting at that speed.” Rumel looked up from the video, “I think it could be compared to an armor piercing round we once used, it goes in small.”
Josh nodded, “Yes, but then it expands.”
“It appears their ship does not.”
“Couldn’t you fire a weapon into the channel it creates?”
Rumel shook his head, “That’s the strange thing. The ship blows through to more than two miles into the planet’s surface at an incredible speed and the channel it creates is closed up behind it as it penetrates. Evidently, the ship is shaped such that the rear of the ship collapses the tunnel as they move through it.”
Josh stared at the image on the monitor showing the Weg Ship two miles underground. “What happens then? Does the Queen start laying her eggs?”
Rumel shook his head, “There is no way they could launch a ship with a fertile Queen. The ship would explode from the number of eggs being laid in it before it lifted into space. No, a Weg Male is on the ship with the Queen and he will be consumed by her as soon as she finds a place suitable for laying her eggs. The Male cuts a pathway to the chosen site, digs a chamber, and that is when she will consume the male. Once she eats her mate, she will start laying her eggs.”
“I noticed in this video the Weg Ship hit a mountainous area.”
“That’s what makes this so impossible. The ship blasts through miles of hard rock and still survives. Our scientists believe that if the ship hit normal ground, it would penetrate through the planet’s bedrock and possibly enter into the planet’s molten mantle. By hitting a mountain, the Queen and her mate can move to an area above the molten mantle and carve out a chamber. The heat from the planet’s core will assist in hatching her eggs.”
“How long does it take them to hatch?”
Rumel shrugged, “We’re not completely certain but our best guess is somewhere between thirty and forty eight hours. Once they hatch, they begin eating the soil around them as they start cutting channels; they’ll be full size and deadly in less than a day later.”
Josh shook his head. He looked at Rumel, “Have they tried to land a ship here?”
Rumel looked out of the main viewport at the Gracken’s Capital planet below and nodded, “More than three hundred times. That’s why we keep so many ships in orbit above the planet. In more than a hundred of their attempts, the only way we stopped them was for a ship to deliberately move into the Weg’s path.”
“With what result?”
Rumel tilted his large head, “Our ship is destroyed but the Weg’s ship is slowed down enough for it to be targeted and destroyed.”
Josh nodded slowly and put his hand on his chin. He thought furiously and after a moment said, “I wonder how that ship would stand up to a Q ship’s beam.”
Rumel smiled, “That is something we are all looking forward to finding out. That beam could be a difference maker in this war.”
Josh nodded and wondered how long that would remain true if the Weg had enough time to develop a counter to it.
• • •
Colonel Jackie Yokawo stood on the hill and looked down as the First Brigade practiced using their jump boots as a unit. She shook her head and fought to keep her composure. Only sixty percent were airborne at the signal. The lift was ragged and many of those that were tardy hit warriors above them. She saw the recording of the Gracken jumping away from a Weg dig and they all jumped at the same moment. She chuckled, except for Cliff. He was slightly below them.
She thought about the difficulty her warriors were having at responding to the jump signal and decided that the Gracken must have better reflexes than humans. Something had to be done or humans would be little more than Weg food in their first land action. She knew her CO was off planet but she sent the recordings of the jump efforts to him with her comments. She expected him to contact her and replace her with someone who could make it happen, but…he didn’t.
• • •
Josh stood outside the Alliance’s Assembly Chamber and waited for the session to end. He had taken a shuttle to the main Governing Planet without permission and hoped Alex wouldn’t be angry. He waited for three hours before the Alliance Representative’s began filing out of the Chamber. Finally, Mike Sanders walked out talking with Hetzel. Mike saw Josh and smiled, “Josh, what a pleasant surprise. What brings you here?”
“Sir, I need your help.” Josh looked at Hetzel and said, “And yours as well.”
Mike saw Josh’s tension and looked at Hetzel, “Do we have a room?”
“I’ll go see if I can free one up.” Hetzel looked at Josh, “Should anyone else be present?”
“If your top Weapon Designer could be present, it would help a lot.”
Hetzel nodded and walked away. Mike pressed his collar, “Tilly?”
“Yes love.”
“Are you still here or did you give up and leave?”
“I can’t understand how it takes so long to say nothing. Does everyone in the government just love to hear themselves talk or is it a genetic flaw. I have to tell you…”
“Tilly!”
“Yes.”
“Josh is here and is asking for a meeting. Are you able to join us?”
“I’ll be there momentarily. At least this meeting won’t have wasted words and wasted time sprouting …”
“I’ll see you shortly, Love.” Mike looked at Josh, “I hate to admit it but she’s right. For someone like my wife, who says what she has to say, these meetings drive Tilly crazy.”
Josh smiled, “How do you tolerate it, Sir.
“I allow Hetzel to run the meeting and I play games on my terminal.”
Josh burst out laughing, “Are you serious?”
“Tilly had one of the engineers here develop a game called, Shooting Snakes, and it has become a big hit both here and back on Earth. The locals here don’t know what a rattlesnake is but they appear to see it as a dangerous alien. Putting the sights on a snake at long distance is challenging.” Mike looked around and leaned in close to Josh, “I beat my best score during this last meeting.” Josh laughed and wondered how Mike seemed to never age. His energy and enthusiasm were amazing. Hetzel motioned them from across the vast foyer and Mike said, “I think we’ve found a room.”
Josh looked around the vast structure and saw hundreds of rooms lining the walls, “Couldn’t you have just ordered one to be made available, Sir.”
Mike nodded, “I could.” He looked at Josh, “However that would be impolite to the guests that come here to use our facilities. Some meetings taking place here waited for years to be assigned a room. I’m working hard to teach the Representatives that we’re here at the will of our citizens. Not the other way around. By the way, how’s Alex doing?”
“Fine, Sir, but he doesn’t know I’m here.”
Mike’s eyes narrowed, “Is this a good idea going over his head?”
“Sir, if I wait to go through channels to meet with you, how long do you think it would take? Alex would insist on going through channels.”
“He’s not going to be happy with you about this.”
“Sir, I can visit my Godfather without asking permission, can’t I?”
Mike smiled, “You’re so much like your parents. The sneakiness of your father and the stubbornness of your mother. How are they doing?”
“They both retired last week, Sir.”
Mike’s eyes narrowed, “That’s not at all like them. Why?”
Josh shru
gged, “I think they didn’t want to be around and watch their children die.”
Mike stared at Josh, “Are you being serious?”
“I am, Sir.” They arrived at the door to the meeting room and Mike saw Tilly waiting inside. She stood up and rushed over to Josh and gave him a huge hug, “How’s my favorite Godson?”
“Great, Tilly. I’d like a copy of that new game.”
Tilly opened her large purse and pulled out a small case, “Here ya go. See if you can beat my score.” Josh smiled and returned her hug.
Chapter Five
Alex was reviewing the status of the training exercises taking place on Sparta and didn’t like what he was seeing. The jumps were awful. Captain Weston opened his door and said, “Sir, The Leader of the Alliance requests to speak with you.”
“Put him through to my monitor.” Alex turned his chair to face the large wall display and saw Mike Sanders appear. He was sitting at a conference table with ten other beings but it was the one sitting next to Mike that bothered him. His eyebrows narrowed as he said, “General Adams, you’re away from your post.”
Mike looked at Alex, “Commandant, my Godson contacted me and told me his parents had retired from the service. Is this true?”
Alex turned his attention to Mike and said, “It is, Councilor.”
“What did you do to cause this? You know how important they are to our efforts against the Weg.”
Alex was stunned by the question, “Nothing, Sir. This was a decision they reached together. I was just as surprised as you are.”
“I asked Josh to come here to discuss the possibility of getting them to accept a position in our Government. I gave him all the information about the positions and asked him to try and prepare them to accept. Was I out of line to ask him to come and visit me and his Godmother?”
Alex stared at Mike and shook his head, “No, Sir. I would just like to be notified if he’s going to be away from his duties.”
Alex saw Josh’s nervousness as Mike said, “I really didn’t anticipate it would take more than a couple of hours. However, while he was here, I asked him about what we’ve learned about the Weg. He shared the videos he has with me. Why have I not seen them?”
“Sir, I sent them to you more than two weeks ago.”
Mike shook his head, “Alex, the Alliance is not Sparta. You have no idea of the bureaucracy I have to deal with every day. I want you to contact me directly in the future with developments as they happen. Can you do that for me?”
Alex smiled and was thankful Josh had gone to visit. This made it worth it, “Yes Sir. Thank you.”
“What are you doing about the jump difficulties with your warriors?”
Josh said, “I shared the latest video of my First Brigade’s jump efforts, Sir. He saw pretty quickly we’re not anywhere near where we should be to go into battle.”
Alex sighed. He was troubled by this as well and was glad he had someone to discuss the issue with, “Sir, it appears humans just don’t have the reflexes to all jump simultaneously. The messages from our eyes and ears are not equal to the Gracken. The method they use to escape won’t work with us, especially with large numbers.”
Mike nodded, “I called the Alliance’s Senior Engineers together as soon as Josh showed me the exercise and”, Mike looked at Josh, “Why don’t you tell him what you told us?”
Josh nodded, “Sir, I’m sorry about surprising you with this.” Alex waved his hand in dismissal. “I suggested to the engineers that we have to take the jump out of the control of our warriors.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed, “You suggested what?”
“Sir, we’re not physically capable of all jumping together. I asked if there is a way where our warriors could be pulled out technologically. I don’t know how it could be done but if the carriers that drop them on a Weg planet could pull them out automatically when a signal is sent…or something like that?”
Alex tilted his head, “Is that possible?”
Mike looked at one of the attendees at the table, “Our Senior Engineer thinks it is?”
Jek looked at Alex and said, “We think so. We have made significant advances in the use of magnetic fields over the last decade. We’ve managed to manipulate them to the point where we can use hundreds of thousands of different magnetic frequencies in close proximity to each other. We think we can put magnetic devices on a carrier such that each warrior on the ground is linked to a single device. Once the device on the carrier is activated, it will pull the warrior off the ground to the device.”
“How fast would they be pulled up to the carrier?”
“We don’t know.”
“How can you pull them up in large numbers and avoid them hitting each other?”
“Again, Commandant, we won’t be able to answer those questions until we actually start building them. “However, your Officer here with us has also requested other items that need to be part of this new carrier design.”
Alex looked at Josh, “Such as?”
Josh took a deep breath and said, “Pricilla and I have discussed the way the Weg can evolve a new species of warrior in a short time. The Jumper they currently are using against the Gracken is not working so we believe that species will be allowed to just die out.” Josh looked at Alex, “Sir, what would be the easiest way to attack warriors jumping off the surface?”
Alex’s eyes narrowed as he ran through several possibilities in his mind. Then he saw it, “They’ll evolve a species that can fly.” Alex stared at Josh, “Do you have anything to support this fear?”
“I contacted Rumel and asked him if he had any probes at the Weg’s home worlds.”
“And?”
“He said he did and I asked him if there were any flying creatures on it. He told me he would get back to me and, an hour after I left the meeting with him, he contacted me and told me that there are. He also said that they were not visible in any recording they had made prior to the Gracken jumping to escape.” Josh paused and said, “I think we know that the Weg are somehow able to communicate with their colonies and if a flying warrior has been evolved on the home world, that piece of information has gone out to the colonies and they are now cooking them up on the invaded planets. Sir, the new carriers will have to have air defenses to hold off any of those flying nightmares.”
Alex looked at Josh and knew he was blessed to have him. He slowly nodded and said, “Why did you go over my head to the Alliance?”
Josh stared at Alex for a moment, looked at Mike briefly, and then said, “To save my division from being eaten alive by those monsters. Going through normal channels would delay us too long. Someone had to do it, Sir.”
Alex smiled as Mike looked at Josh, “You just ruined a great alibi.” Mike looked at Alex, “You have to admit it was a good one.”
Alex laughed, “Yes it was, Sir. However, I know my Officer would not lie to me. Josh, in the future, do what you think needs doing and just let me know. I won’t slow you down. This was the right thing to do.”
Josh smiled, “Thank you, Sir. I felt really bad doing it.”
Mike looked around the table, “We need to come up with a design quickly. The training of Spartan and Earth troops will have to stop until this delivery system is developed.”
Jek looked at Josh, “Do you have any idea how many of those flying creatures might be attacking the carriers?”
Josh looked at Alex on the monitor and then turned back to Jek, “It could be in the millions.”
Jek’s shock was obvious. After a moment he shrugged and looked at the other engineers sitting at the table, “Then we need to design them to escape that number. A carrier will not have the size or power to carry Q ship caliber weapons.”
Alex said, “How long will it take to develop a working model?”
Jek looked at the other engineers at the table and watched them hold up fingers or limbs. Alex saw most of them were holding up three or four. He didn’t think the Gracken could wait three of four years for them to join the
effort. He was stunned when Jek said, “We should have a working model in about three weeks.”
“WHAT?”
“We might do it faster. It all depends on whether or not the new small reactors can produce enough power to operate the magnetic recall system as well as the blasters. I suspect they will do either but not both.”
Alex shook his head, “Josh, please stay there until the model is ready. When they have it ready you can use your division to trial it on Sparta. Who do you want to command your division in your absence?”
“Col. Yokawo, Sir.”
Alex smiled, “That’s a good choice.”
“She’s ready for her own command, Sir.”
“I’ll look into it but first the Carrier.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
Rumel looked at the recordings from the Weg Home World and said over his shoulder, “Can you bring those flying creatures in closer?”
“I’ll try, the probe is a long way out, Group Commander.”
Rumel watched the monitor closely and the image was grainy at best. Suddenly, a clear image appeared of a large flock of the creatures and then it was gone. “Stop and roll the recording back.”
The images on the monitor froze and then began moving slowly in reverse. After a few moments, the clear image appeared and froze on the monitor. Rumel walked forward and looked at the creatures. “It appears there are several different species on this image.”
The Scan Commander nodded, “Yes, Commander, my computer tells me there are six different creatures. However, it appears that one of them outnumbers the others by eight to one.”
“Show me a close up of that one.” A green and orange colored creature began growing on the monitor and Rumel said, “Freeze it there.” Rumel walked up closer to the monitor and immediately felt fear. The huge flying Weg had two arms with one of them having the glowing claws. The other one also had ten claws but they didn’t glow. He wondered why but then he looked at the body of the creature and saw a flap of skin on its chest. He said, “Bring that flap of skin on its chest closer.” The view moved in and he knew trouble lay ahead. Sticking out of the skin fold was the handle of what had to be a blaster.