“Ok,” said Chung, nodding. “We’re in.” He looked at the schematic. “We can get a car at this central station, and take it to this branch, then out to the side.”
“I’ll have a car waiting for you, Senior Agent Chung,” said the General. “And thanks for backing us up.”
My second on that, thought Cornelius. The agents might not have been trained military personnel, though some had prior service. But it was good to have backup firepower, no matter how amateur, versus the alternative.
* * *
The Ca’cadasan General watched on the holo as more of his men exited the wormhole. Only four hundred to go, he thought. And then the damned Lizards can blow that Bird station out of space.
He glanced at the tram tube on another holo that his men had just gone up, taking almost an entire battalion and one of the weapons on a trio of trains. The bombs were set to go off in four hours, and would detonate earlier if they were tampered with. He wanted all the explosions more or less simultaneously, to have the maximum effect.
The station shook underfoot, and the General swung his head back to see the holo of the gate room. Bright light and fire was coming out of the gate, incinerating the males closest to it. A moment later the gate disappeared, leaving only the melted machinery in the otherwise empty space the wormhole had occupied.
“Damn them,” yelled the General, bringing a gauntleted hand down on the holo globe that had been showing that scene, crushing it. “Damn those Lizards to hell.” They had set off their bomb, before the time frame they had agreed to. Taking out the Bird station, and four hundred of the General’s males. Four hundred males that could be the deciding factor in holding the territory he needed.
The General calmed himself down, realizing that was really nothing the humans could do to stop him now. This station would be destroyed, just like the Bird station thousands of light years away.
* * *
ELYSIUM CAPITAL.
“Ambassador,” yelled his Marine security officer, pointing to the sky. “Look.”
Horatio looked to the sky, and into an almost unbearably bright dot that was expanding before his eyes. He looked down for a moment as his eyes started to hurt, putting on his polarized glasses, then looking back.
“That was the station,” he said, shaking his head. Almost a hundred warships at dock, tens of thousands of Brakakak. What in the hell could have caused that kind of blast? And have they taken any of them to our station?
“Ambassador,” said the Marine officer, grasping his arm. “We need to get under cover.”
“That station is thirty thousand kilometers away,” said the Ambassador. “I doubt it’s a threat to us here.”
“We don’t know how much power was released up there, your Grace, ” said the officer, pulling along the Ambassador. “Do you really want to take that chance?”
Horatio shook his head and allowed the Marine to lead him inside and to the shelter. While walking, he couldn’t get rid of the elated feeling. Despite the damage to our friends, and the threat to our station, they have now suffered a major loss from our enemies. They’re in this the whole way now.
* * *
CONGREEVE SPACE.
The Great Admiral looked at the tactical plot at the system that had been his undoing, fighting off the nausea of the last jump into hyper. The rest of his once mighty fleet was arrayed around his flag, a mere four hundred vessels, only two hundred of them capital ships.
“We hurt the enemy,” said his Staff Advisor.
And they hurt us much more, thought the Great Admiral, tallying up his remaining fleet, including units that had not been involved in this operation, and realizing he had less than half of what he had when he entered this system.
“I want a messenger sent to our force in the New Terran Republic,” he told his com officer. “As soon as they are able, and enough of them to get through no matter what.”
“The message, my Lord?”
“I want them to pull out of the Republic. All ships are to relocate to our base here, for continued operations against the humans.”
“But, our progress against those humans,” protested the Advisor.
“Our progress there means nothing if we lose the fight here. I need those ships here, as soon as possible, so I can continue our conquest of the space of this Empire.”
“You don’t mean to go on the defensive.”
“No. That is what the humans would like. I intend to reorganize, and strike as many of their systems as I can.”
“It will take over a month for messengers to reach the force in Republic space,” cautioned the Advisor, “and get them back here.”
“Then we will strike in two months,” said the Admiral. “We hurt them too, and I don’t want them to recover any more than we can.”
“We are picking up enemy ships,” called out the Sensor Officer. “On both sides. Launching missiles.”
“We’re not out of it yet, my Lord,” said the Advisor.
“No, they’ll hit us all the way back to Conumdrum. But they don’t have enough of those ships to stop us.” And they have no idea what’s coming from our Empire.
Epilogue
Sean looked over his fleet, wincing as the casualty figures appeared on the holo. Someone has to take responsibility for our losses, as well as our successes. And the buck stops here.
“It looks bad,” said Jennifer, sitting next to him at the conference room table that was otherwise unoccupied.
“It could get worse,” he said, shaking his head. “We still don’t know what the outcome of the fight on the Donut will be. If we lose that wormhole generator, we’ve lost the war.” As well as the millions of people serving on that station.
“So, what’s the next move? I guess it depends on what happens on the Donut?
“No,” said Sean, shaking his head. “Whether the station survives or not, our next move is an offensive against the Cacas. Another supernova will not come along for decades in this region, if not centuries, and we have to take advantage of it.”
“Preparing to jump, your Majesty,” said Kelso over the com. “Five minutes.”
“And I think you need to lie down,” the Emperor told his love. She nodded, stood up, and gave him a quick kiss, then left the room, heading for their quarters. It must be awful to be so affected by a translation, thought Sean. I wouldn’t be able to survive such sickness every time the ship I was in changed dimensions. Some people thought such sickness was a weakness, but as he saw it in Jennifer, she was strong enough to travel along with him, despite the hardship.
Minutes later the lights dimmed for a moment, and the slight nausea of passage made him think again what his fiancé’ was going through. He knew her level of response to translation would have disqualified her from Fleet service.
“We’re on course to Ankara,” said Kelso, referring to the nearest Core world, one with major shipyards, antimatter factories, and missile manufactories.
There were a lot of ships in the fleet that needed refit and repairs, including Augustine I. They had six weeks on the outside to prepare, possibly less, since the prediction of supernovas could often be off by weeks.
“Thank you, Admiral. I would like to convene a staff meeting in one hour. We have a lot of planning on the slate.”
Sean spent that hour looking at the tactical plot of the Empire, feeling more despair as the time passed. Everything looked bad in his present state of mind. Fighting for no positive result, just more death. Hopeless.
“Did I miss anything?” asked Jennifer, walking into the room, her face still white from nausea.
My anchor, thought Sean, smiling at her. If she can take this, I can hold up to anything. He looked back at the tactical holo, knowing that he was going to throw this Caca incursion out of his Empire. After that he would just have to take it as it came, and hope for the best.
* * *
OUTSIDE OF IMPERIAL SPACE. NOVEMBER 21ST, 1001.
Commodore Natansha Sung stood on her bridge, wat
ching the alien ships translate into hyper VII. Do we have a new ally? she thought, focusing the holo on one of the ten million ton armed merchantmen. It was of a design that was never contemplated in the Empire, a vessel whose primary purpose was to carry cargo, but armed like a warship. In fact, the Megeda were a singular species, their entire government and cultural focus on trade and commerce, making their version of money. They did go to war, but only for the advantages it would give them in trade.
They never mentioned slavery, but they sure had a lot of other species on board their ships who seemed only trained for menial labor, thought the Commodore. While the aliens had seemed friendly to the extreme, with their cuddly Teddy Bear looks, even on their two and a half meter tall bodies, to her the aliens seemed to have the underlying personality of a used aircar salesman. Shaking your hand one moment, putting a dagger in your back the next.
And they seemed very interested in our wormholes, she thought as the ships disappeared. I thought they were going to try and take one, until they realized owning one end of a wormhole really wasn’t to their advantage.
The lights dimmed on Nina for a moment, and the hole opened into hyper VII ahead of them. The vessel slid in, joining her two sister ships in the other dimension. All went to maximum acceleration, in their cases about a hundred gravities, much less than the four hundred gravities they were estimating from the Megeda ships.
They don’t seem to be following us, she thought, watching the alien ships on the tactical holo until they disappeared off the plot. She was assuming that their sensors were no better than the ones on the Imperial ships, and that the Megeda ships, pulling higher acceleration, were easier to track. She knew she could be wrong on both those assumptions, but it was the smart way to bet.
The last troubling part was that the Megeda admitted to knowing of the Ca’cadasans, and had traded with them in the past. They said they had no love for our enemies. But was that another diplomatic ploy on their part?
After a short while the Megeda ships dropped off the plot, and she figured they were no longer her problem. The Empire had been informed, and were sending a trade and diplomatic delegation aboard warships to meet with the aliens. The Megeda had some impressive tech, and seemed impressed by some of the technology on the human ships as well. They looked like an entity that would be advantageous to trade with.
But I’ve got other things to think about, she thought, looking at the course they had decided on to take them to the other end of Caca space. From the information the Megeda gave me, it should be clear sailing until we reach our destination.
* * *
One of the creatures in question looked at his own tactical holo, and the icons of the alien ships shown thereon. This will lead to great opportunity, thought the Trade Captain, his teeth showing in a predatory grin.
He had told the almost hairless creatures the truth about the Ca’cadasans. His people did not have any love for the territorial creatures, who had once tried to subjugate his own people. But since his people did not have any territory, they had been able to avoid that fate. Still, the large predators paid well for information. And he now had information that they would definitely pay well for.
And we can also trade with the humans, when they send their trade delegation here. It is a win win situation for us, if not for everyone else.
He continued to watch as the icons of the alien ships dropped off his plot. Too bad about those particular humans, he thought, watching as the computer generated tracks of the ships showed their proposed voyage. I liked them. But this is business. And nothing is more important than business.
* * *
NEW TERRAN REPUBLIC SPACE. DECEMBER 21ST, 1001.
“Madame President,” said the Crakista Admiral in Charge of Republic Third Battle Fleet, looking out of the wormhole com holo. “We have entered the Jranka system.”
“What is your assessment, Admiral?” said the President, hoping that whatever was in that system was not too much for the battle fleet to bite off, much less chew.
“Our assessment is that there are no enemy ships in the system. And, as we did not pick up any ships leaving the system, it is apparent that they were gone before we arrived.”
That’s, unlikely, thought Julia Graham, looking at a second holo that showed the Republic, and the Ca’cadasan incursions into Republic space. “And this is the fifth system we’ve found abandoned. What the hell is going on?”
“Given what we have learned about the New Terran Empire’s latest battle against the Ca’cadasans,” said the reptilian with flat affect, “I would say the Ca’cadasans are being recalled from our space and into the Empire.”
The President thought about that for a moment. On the surface, it represented good news for her government. The Cacas wouldn’t be attacking her worlds, her people. In the long run it was anything but good news. Her reinforced fleet was now chasing nothing, and the Empire would be facing the strength of the enemy alone.
“Orders, Madam President,” said the Crakista.
“Stand by,” she said. “I’ll get back with you within the hour.” Sean better get ready for this. I know he’s got something planned for those currently in his Empire, but this may change things.
“Madame President,” said a voice, getting her attention in an instant. She looked up into the face of her Chief of Naval Operations on the holo. “The pickets are reporting a major Caca force moving toward the Empire.”
“What size?”
“Over a thousand ships, Madame President.”
That many, she thought, drawing in a breath. She thought for a moment. It will be a risk, but one we need to take. “Get me the commanders of all the battle fleets,” she said, making a decision. “I’ve got a target for them that I think they will love.”
The End
Appendix
Books by Doug Dandridge
Science Fiction
The Deep Dark Well Trilogy
The Deep Dark Well: An Adventure 40,000 years in the making. Pandora Latham was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama. She’s used to landing on her feet, even when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and 46,000 years in the Future. Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the Empire that once ruled the stars. Her decisions will set the path for Galactic recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.
To Well and Back: Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore Galactic Civilization. But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the Galaxy their own. Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.
The Exodus Series
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1: The introduction to the Exodus Universe. Two thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home. Now the greatest power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran Empire. Until the enemy appears once again at the gates. And the years have not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2: The saga continues. The Ca’cadasans attack at the moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic. There are other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed humans. And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the position he most dreads.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: Sean is rescued, but he is not about to go back to the safety of the capital without striking back at the Ca’cadasans who have invaded his Empire. But will his decision put the lives of thousands at risk, as well as risking the safety of his own Empire, by depriving it of its leader.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: Sean is crowned Emperor, and attempts to organize the Empire for war against the Ca’cadasans. But he finds that planning battles and winning battles are two different things.
Defeat follows defeat. Can anyone snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Or will the new Emperor fail before his reign even really begins.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger: Cornelius Walbroski enters the rigors of Ranger training, becoming one of the augmented warriors of the Empire. But his first assignment, Azure, is one of the most deadly planets in the Galaxy, even prior to the coming of the Cacas. Can Cornelius survive his first mission? Or will promising career end before it really begins.
Other Scifi
Diamonds in the Sand: When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere to find out what really happened. The scientist was working on Nanotechnology, a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob. There are too many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love. The Army had made Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been unleashed by the new technology?
The Scorpion: The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. Kestral McMann had been in on the kill. Now The Scorpion is back as a mind upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United States. McMann is the only man who can stop him. But can McMann survive the threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age.
The Shadows of the Multiverse: Something has been periodically wiping intelligence from our Universe through the ages. It’s back, and it’s up to three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from Monsters from another Dimension. Can they learn to use the powers of their unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for billions of years?
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 06 - The Day of Battle Page 41