“FIRE!”
“Solar disrupter fired!” said Tanner, stepping back from the targeting array.
Ryan actually felt the ship buck when the weapon was discharged. He watched the monitor. The near overload of the light-speed generator dumped an enormous volume of particles and gasses into a controlled energy beam. Within seconds, the powerful discharge reached the archaic collection of communication satellites along with a couple of out-of-service small transports.
He held his breath and looked at Amanda. She was staring intently at the sensor array, waiting for the data to come through. They’d made it past the explosion danger. Now to see if the experiment worked. The entire bridge was silent, waiting to hear her report and watching her face closely for any sign. Any hint.
Finally, her eyes widened.
“Oh, my God,” she said.
“What?” said Tanner. Don’t keep us in suspense, for Chrissakes.”
Then a grin formed on her face as she looked up at Ryan.
“It worked!” she said. “All satellites are offline. Both transport ships have shut down.” She pumped her fist up in the air as she ran directly to Ryan.
The rest of the bridge was also up on their feet and cheering, except for Nicole, who was flying the ship.
Ryan stood up as Amanda jumped into his arms. He looked into her eyes and saw pure elation. He couldn’t help thinking what a total jerk he had been to her the last three years. He hugged her as tight as he could, and whispered in her ear, “I’m so proud of you. You did it. You really did it.” He put her down and looked around the bridge. Everyone was congratulating each other. Either nobody noticed their exchange, or if they did, they were so overwhelmed with joy that they didn’t care—which was just fine, as far as Ryan was concerned.
Jill called out to him. “Ryan,” she said. He voice had a serious tone. “Um . . . Admiral Williamson is on the com, sir. He wants to speak with you and Amanda.”
Ryan looked over at Amanda, who shrugged her shoulders.
“Put him on video,” said Ryan. He figured if they were going to get reamed out, it may as well happen in front of the whole crew.
Jill hit a button, and the video display turned on. Williamson’s face, as usual, was hard to read.
“To all the cadets on the Nimitz. This will be a brief, but important message. I want you all to remember, and let sink in, what you have just done. You have willingly chosen to undertake this highly risky, extremely dangerous test, and put yourself in harm’s way, with the greatest of intentions, mind you—nothing less than to find a way to save the human race. Your attempt, which all of you chose to do, without my explicit orders I might add, was foolhardy beyond belief. But it was also the most daring, brave, and well-executed goddamn thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Thanks to you, mankind may very well have a chance to beat these bastards. I’m proud as hell of all of you. As for you, Ryan and Amanda, I’d like to see you both in my office for a debriefing once you’re on the ground. Williamson out.”
The screen went blank.
“Did I just witness that?” said Tanner.
“So, what’s next?” said Paul.
“I guess now we have to get all the other ships set up and ready to move out,” said Amanda.
Ryan nodded. “That, and convince everyone else and your father to let us go.”
“You’ll need my help on that,” she said. “Trust me.” She smiled at him.
Ryan had to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” said Amanda.
“Nothing,” he said. “Just that you always said you wanted to save the world and make it a better place. Well you’ll have a helluva chance now.”
He smiled as he turned to Nicole at the helm. “Take us in, Nikki. Nice and easy.”
“Captain,” said Nicole, beaming. “Taking us in.”
Ryan sat back in the command chair and took a deep breath. Now the hard part would begin.
Chapter 27
In Harm’s Way
As his jubilant but anxious crew exited the hangar, Ryan was taken aback by the large crowd of cadets waiting. They all cheered as he and the rest of the team descended. Apparently, word about the test results had spread, and it seemed there was a renewed sense of hope in the air.
He called his bridge crew together as soon as they’d made it past the mob.
“Okay, guys,” he said, “here’s the deal. Amanda and I are going to meet with her dad and put together a plan of attack. Jill and Nikki, you guys get the word out and have all the cadets meet in the auditorium at fourteen hundred hours.”
Ryan gestured to Paul and Tanner. “I’ll need the two of you get all the engineers and weapons officers together and give them a crash course on the system and how to get it up and running. Then get all the crews working on this for the other ships. Whatever you do, guys, be sure to personally check every unit to make sure they’ve all been installed properly.”
“Got it,” said Paul. “I’m heading over to the engineering library first. I’m sure most of the engineers are there now, looking over the schematics Amanda and I posted on the server.”
“I’m gonna tag along with Paul,” said Tanner. “Not to worry, skipper. We won’t rest until there’s a solar disrupter in every household . . . or at least every ship.”
Ryan laughed, as he motioned to Amanda. “We better get going. Your dad’s waiting, and you know how he gets.”
Amanda joined him as they made their way down the long corridor to the admiral’s office.
As they entered Williamson’s reception area, Ryan was surprised to see the admiral waiting right there. The assistant’s desk was vacant.
“Where’s Lieutenant Rhimes?” asked Ryan.
“Taking a much needed rest. I gave her the day off. In times like this, people die, Thompson, and her husband was reported missing. She’s good people. So was he.”
“Oh no,” said Amanda. “She must be beside herself.”
Williamson was stone-faced as usual. “Let’s step into my office, we have more pressing issues to discuss.” Then he softened up and almost looked human as he held Amanda’s shoulders. “Listen, Mandy,” he said, “I’m as upset as you are about that, but there’s nothing we can do.”
She nodded as they all proceeded into Williamson’s office. The admiral sat behind his desk.
“I have all the data here,” said Amanda. “I also sent you a complete breakdown.”
“No need to see it again, I’ve already sent it to an engineer I trust,” said Williamson, “the last senior guy on the base.”
“Did he get back to you?” said Ryan.
“He sure did.” The admiral paused.
“Well, are you going to tell us?” said Amanda.
“He said it looks sound. Dangerous as hell, but sound.”
“And?” said Amanda.
“There is no ‘and.’ You guys did one hell of a job.”
Ryan decided that now was the time to make his case. “Sir,” he said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to revisit our previous conversation about taking the fleet of ships we have, arming them with the solar disrupter, and heading out towards Earth.”
“What previous conversation?” said Williamson.
“Sir—”
“You must be referring to the one that never happened, just like this one isn’t happening.”
The admiral got up and started to pace back and forth. “I’ve given this plenty of thought, Thompson. In many ways, you’re right, I’ll give you that. There is no other way, or no other answer I can think of. If I try to forward the information to Fleet Headquarters, the Altarrans would probably intercept the message and that would be that. Even if I encoded it, it would still give away our position.”
“Sir. I under—”
“Damn it, Ryan. Please be quiet and let me finish.”
“Yes, sir,” said Ryan. “Sorry, sir.”
“As I was saying, even if we did send the information to Headquarters, they don’t have enough ships or time t
o make it work. So that really only leaves one choice.”
“Us,” said Amanda.
“I want you to contact the other cadets,” said Williamson, who seemed to be in a bit of a daze, “and ask who’s willing to go with you. Don’t make threats or promises. If you can get enough of them to man all fifteen ships, I won’t stand in your way. God knows I don’t want to put my daughter in harm’s way, or you either, Ryan, but damn if it isn’t the only choice we have. And you’re right, I can’t go, because if it . . . doesn’t go as expected, these people here need me.”
“Sir,” said Ryan, “you’re making the right decision.”
“I made no decision, Thompson. I want both of you to know that I cannot sanction this mission, and on the official record, it happened without my consent. I can help you with whatever information you need, but I cannot endorse this mission. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” said Ryan.
The admiral looked at his daughter.
“Yes, Dad,” she said.
“Dad?” said the admiral.
“Well, we’re not on official business, are we?” She smiled, and for the first time, Williamson smiled back.
Ryan could see that the admiral was torn up inside, but the hardened man, whose weathered face made him look old beyond his years, appeared as a rock—an unmoving, proud, supportive rock. But inside, the man was all love. And that’s all anyone could ever expect from an admiral. Or a father.
“Sir,” he said, “we’re going to leave one battleship here with you. Also, in the event that you have to evacuate the base, enough transports to take the remaining cadets to a safe place.”
“Just leave the transports, Ryan. You’re going to need every last one of those ships to succeed.”
“Guys,” said Amanda, “I have another idea.”
Ryan and Williamson both looked at her, wondering where she was going with this.
“What if we could end this peacefully?” she said. “I mean, you told us that they came here looking for their lost envoys. And I do have an amulet that matches their insignia. Maybe if I mention the amulet to them, we can open up negotiations and end this without any more bloodshed. After all, we did cause this in a way.”
Ryan just shook his head. “Are you serious? We’d give away our position and the whole plan would be shot. Don’t forget they killed over two thousand men and women from our fleet because a few of their envoys are missing? And we didn’t cause anything, our ancestors did—allegedly. But they didn’t seem to care about that, from what the report said. These creatures have no conscience, Amanda; they’re not gonna say, ‘Yeah, maybe you’re right.’”
The admiral was just looking at them like he was watching a tennis match. Amanda’s face turned beet red. “You don’t know that,” she said. “And what happened to trusting my opinion?”
“I trust your opinion with engineering, but this is different. The only option here is to blow them away before they do it to us. All’s fair in war, Amanda. Besides, you’re the one who came up with the weapon in the first place.”
“You know, just when I was starting to think that you might actually have an open mind, you revert to being a Neanderthal. Why do we have to go in guns blazing? Couldn’t we broadcast the message from—”
“Why?” he said. “I’ll tell you why.” He couldn’t believe, after all that had happened, the naïve Amanda had returned. “Even if they are right, we have no clue when this happened. It seems like it was a helluva long time ago. If, and I say if, their people did crash land on Earth, they’re long gone and we can’t bring them back. How can you not get that? We have no bargaining chip. All you’d do is prove for sure to them that we did something to their people. Think about it.”
Amanda didn’t look like she was buying it. “But if we appealed to them,” she said, “and showed them the amulet in good faith, it might make a difference. They might listen. The odds are better of that, than of our mission working. Sometimes, you just have to have a little faith in humanity.”
“But that’s the point. They’re not human, Amanda!”
“No, but you can’t think everyone’s out to intentionally cause evil, either. Sometimes bad things happen, Ryan. Unfortunate things.”
“Unfortunate?”
“But it doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed with a little understanding,” she added.
“This isn’t about me, Amanda.”
“Isn’t it? Because I think you’re making this a personal vendetta to make up for what happened at the hospital.”
Ryan felt his fists clench.
“Don’t even—”
“Hold up there, children,” said Williamson.
Before Ryan could respond, Amanda turned around and stormed out of the office.
Williamson just shook his head and looked at Ryan. “Now you’ve done it. You pissed her off all over again. Just when it looked like you two might actually grow up.”
Ryan stood there dumbfounded. He wasn’t even sure what had just happened, and he certainly didn’t get Amanda’s position. Or rather, he didn’t get how she couldn’t understand his. He looked at the admiral.
“Begging the admiral’s pardon, but why did she even design a weapon that would disable the Altarrans’ shields if not to use it to win this war?”
Williamson looked directly at him, his face a little softer. “Son, sometimes you just have to figure things out for yourself. My daughter has always believed there can be a peaceful outcome to any altercation. Just because we’re members of the military doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to put an end to a dispute peacefully.”
“So you’re telling me you don’t think what she’s suggesting is insane?”
“Sure it’s insane. Everything we’ve been talking about is insane. Listen, Ryan. There comes a time when there’s no black or white decision. Oh there’s a right answer and a wrong one, but you don’t find out which is which until the game’s over. Welcome to leadership, son. Now, you’ve got a whole lot of work ahead of you and not a lot of time to get it done. Why don’t you get out of here and get to it.”
“Will do, sir.”
“Dismissed, Thompson.”
Ryan saluted, turned around, and left the office. He knew the admiral was right. Time was against them. But he couldn’t get Amanda out of his mind. She just didn’t understand that sometimes you need to seize the opportunity, and discussions just aren’t an option. That’s why governments don’t negotiate with terrorists. But she had a bleeding heart, and he supposed he couldn’t fault her for that. Except, in this case it could become a hazard to the mission. He couldn’t let that sidetrack him though. They had a fleet to get armed and ready, and then they had a small army of cadets to convince to go to war.
Chapter 28
Counterpoint
As Amanda entered her dorm, she could hear Jill and Nicole blabbering away. They sounded excited. She slammed the door as she walked in, and they both stopped to stare at her. She threw her files on the table and slumped down on the sofa next to them. “Why, why do I do this to myself?”
Jill looked at her. “Okay, what happened now? You guys left the ship an hour ago looking like Romeo and Juliet.”
Amanda sighed. “We were talking to my dad about getting the fleet armed and ready to head to Earth. I mentioned to Ryan that maybe, just maybe, we could try and talk to the Altarrans before shooting at them. You know?”
“Uh oh,” said Jill. “I’m sure that went over well.”
“All I wanted to do,” said Amanda, “was to try to end this peacefully. I mean, I have the amulet. Maybe if we reached out to them and told them that, we could at least open up a dialogue. Maybe we could avoid a possible disaster.”
“It sounds reasonable to me,” said Nicole.
“Tell Ryan that. All he could talk about was why it wouldn’t work.”
Nicole shook her head. “What was his argument?”
“He said it would give away our positions. But if he had let me finish, we could have discussed wa
ys around that. But no, he was too busy on his warpath to even consider it.”
“Maybe we can convince him to at least think about it,” said Nicole.
“There’s no convincing him of anything. Meanwhile, he’s putting all of humanity at risk because he won’t take time to listen.”
“Well,” said Jill, “you better figure out a way to put on a common front with him in the next sixty minutes.”
“Why is that?”
“Because we have the entire academy attending a special meeting. A meeting where you and Ryan are the speakers.”
“Just great,” said Amanda. “I was so worked up I almost forgot about that.”
“Yeah, well, you better figure something out,” said Jill. “Because you and Ryan are the leaders here, and you’re going to have to stand united if we have any chance of pulling this mission together.”
Amanda stood up and took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’ll be okay. After all, we still have a ton of work to do to get the ships ready.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” said Nicole.
“Never better,” said Amanda, shooting Nicole a false smile as she headed to her room to get ready.
Within thirty minutes, they were headed toward the auditorium. Amanda was running ideas through her mind, searching for the right words to say to the class. Either way, she still wasn’t giving up the idea of finding a peaceful resolution. She owed humanity that much.
As she entered the auditorium, she could see that the place was full. She overheard some of the conversations as she walked down toward the front of the auditorium. There seemed to be a combination of excitement and fear. It appeared that all three classes were in attendance.
Just before she reached the stage she saw Tanner and Paul in the first row. Tanner waved to her. “Let’s have a hand for Doctor Doom,” he yelled out, “the mad scientist and creator of the solar death ray.”
She ignored him.
As she headed to the stage, she rubbed her sweaty palms on the side of her pants. Ryan was already there. She walked onto the stage and took a seat next to him. As he got up and walked to the podium, the noise level dropped. She got up and stood beside him. She watched as he looked out at the audience. She had to admit, he seemed calm and in control, emitting an air of self confidence. In a way that just aggravated her even more, though, considering what was at stake.
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