by Jason Bourn
Nadia said, “Yes, we need to stop him from continuing his advance. If he is not stopped, he will be at our doorsteps next. Admiral, Giliad, are you good with sending battle ships there?”
The admiral thought about it and said, “I suppose it would be all right to send five or ten battle ships. I would hate to compromise the defense of Torval 2 just to defend a small, insignificant world. But I suppose it won’t do too much harm if just a small force is sent.”
Nadia looked at Giliad, who said, “You have allowed yourself to be placed into a vulnerable position. If you send overwhelming force to Alios, you ensure victory there since Garth undoubtedly will refrain from fighting, however you considerably weaken the defense of Torval 2. On the other hand, if you send only a small force to Alios, you will almost certainly will have to fight to obtain a victory – and that is a best-case scenario. There are many ways that this course of action can lead to less desirable results.”
Captain Okawa was growing impatient saying, “I need to remind you that Garth’s ships are awaiting our response to their demand for our surrender. We need to respond quickly or I’m afraid that they will attack and it will be too late.”
The admiral said, “We have the jump coordinates programmed in and any number of ships could jump. We just have to give the word.”
Both the admiral and Giliad looked at Nadia, since even though it was a military decision, it had tremendous political implications.
Nadia looked at them and shrugged. “I would prefer to send more rather than less ships, but I will leave it up to you Admiral.”
The admiral scratched his head, thinking about it, but knowing that he had to decide quickly. Finally, he said, “Let’s send a small contingent, say thirteen battle ships. That will mean that we have them overpowered by exactly two-to-one, including your ship. That should be plenty to block any kind of an offensive action, but more importantly that will not materially impact Torval 2’s defensive capabilities. I’ll give the order now.”
– – –
Garth sent a final warning message to Alios saying, “You have five minutes to agree to sign the trade agreement or we will open fire on your planet and the battle ship that is protecting it.
After less than one minute had elapsed, Garth received a response from the fleet battle ship, “Garth Logan, this is Captain Ulysses Okawa of the fleet battle ship Chronos. A large number of battle ships are jumping soon to overwhelm your battle ships. You are urged to leave or you will be destroyed.”
Garth hesitated, not knowing if he should believe the captain at all. He sent back a message to the captain, “I don’t believe you. If you had these ships coming, they would be here already.”
The captain appeared somewhat distracted, looking away from the screen. Then he looked back and smiled. “See for yourself.”
Abruptly, thirteen fleet battle ships jumped near Alios, making fourteen total fleet battle ships to Garth’s seven battle ships in the area. When they appeared, a greatly emboldened Captain Okawa responded to Garth, “Again, it appears that you are well overmatched. We would be willing to accept your surrender.”
Smiling, Captain Okawa waited for a response. When no response came immediately, Captain Okawa felt his confidence grow. He was sure that Garth was scrambling to try to salvage the situation.
However, the response came less than thirty seconds later in the form of thirty-six additional Garth battle ships jumping to Alios. Garth had left a battle ship near each of the six worlds that had just joined his Kingdom, ensuring his new constituents would continue their support, so all the other ships that were no longer needed there, jumped to Alios. The tide had now shifted notably in Garth’s direction since he had forty-three battle ships to Captain Okawa’s fourteen.
Garth said to Captain Okawa saying, “It is you that are at a disadvantage. Surrender now or you will be destroyed.”
Now it was Garth’s turn to smile. Seeing the look of incredulity and near panic flash on the face of Captain Okawa made Garth’s smile grow even wider. Garth knew that this quick change of advantage was an important psychological tool that would be worth more and more in the future, as any potential adversary would always question themselves, even if they thought they had the tactical advantage.
Captain Okawa gritted his teeth. He quickly consulted with his officers and dolefully said, “It appears that you have us at an advantage. We will return to Torval 2 and you can have this backward world.”
Elated, Garth bid him farewell.
Garth then sent a final message to Alios, “I am going to send you another trade agreement, with the terms not quite as favorable as the first one, which has hereby been withdrawn. You have three minutes to sign this new trade agreement or my battle ships will open fire. It is your choice.”
It took less than two minutes for the trade agreement to be signed. Garth looked it over and signed it himself.
Garth then gave the order to send a battle ship to the remaining Periphery worlds that did not have any fleet battle ships to protect them and have them sign a trade agreement. He knew that they could put up no real resistance. This meant that in one fell swoop he would have acquired every inhabited planet in the entire sector except the largest five Periphery worlds and Torval 2 herself.
Garth smiled and reclined further in his favorite chair, knowing that his plan was working out very well indeed.
CHAPTER 29 – VOLANTE
The Council of War was convened immediately after the rapid loss all of the smaller Periphery worlds. Nadia, Saul, Admiral Badstubner and Giliad were present at this all-important meeting.
“We cannot allow Garth to continue with his offensive,” Nadia proclaimed.
The admiral quickly joined in, “Yes, he has to be stopped, and quickly.”
Saul piled on saying, “Everyone on my home world, Volante, is afraid of what will happen next. Everything has happened so quickly that none of us feels safe. What is being done to protect our last five Periphery worlds? Garth has taken over every other one.”
Nadia said, “We cannot allow him to use aggression any more. Any attempt to take over any other worlds needs to be met with instant response. Admiral, do you agree?”
The admiral responded, “Yes, the time for pacifying him has ended. It is now time to take a very tough attitude and respond with quick, decisive measures to any show of force. I have placed the entire fleet on high alert. They are capable of instantly responding to a threat on any of the remaining Periphery worlds. While the difference in the number of battle ships is not as large as it once was, we still can project overwhelming superiority, since we have far more than twice the number of battle ships than Garth has. If they mass an attack, I will hold forty-two ships here on Torval 2 and have seventy ships immediately jump to the attack site.”
Nadia then looked to Giliad and said, “Giliad, you have been very quiet. What do you think?”
Giliad didn’t say anything for several seconds. He finally said slowly, “The ideal time to ensure victory and avoid armed conflict has long passed. I’m afraid now that there is little chance that victory can be achieved without an all-out war.
Nadia, the admiral and Saul looked at each other, but there wasn’t anything more that could be said.
– – –
Garth said to Darian, “Are the battle ships and crews ready? I believe the strategy we discussed is sound.”
Darian paused to think through the entire plan, then nodded his head. “Yes, everything is ready for whenever you give the order. I have to say that I am looking forward to it. We have been waiting for this for a long time.”
Garth felt the ultimate thrill of excitement bursting up, as it did whenever his plans for conquest were actually being implemented. “Yes Darian, let’s do this thing.”
With that Darian gave the order to start the conquest of the final Periphery worlds.
Instantly, all the available battle ships at Garth’s disposal, the forty-two of them that were not otherwise predisposed, jump
ed to Saul’s home world of Volante. The sensor network encircling Volante immediately sent an alert message to Torval 2. Just as quickly, seventy fleet battle ships jumped to Volante’s near space.
However, just as quickly, every one of Garth’s battle ships then jumped away.
An alert was received a fraction of a second later indicating all forty-two of Garth’s battle ships had jumped to Torval 2.
Immediately the order was sent to have the seventy fleet battle ships jump back to Torval 2.
Just as the seventy ships arrived, however, Garth’s forty-two ships jumped to Gael’s near space, the most populous Periphery world after Volante. Immediately the seventy fleet battle ships jumped to Gael.
Again, an alert was received a fraction of a second later indicating all forty-two of Garth’s battle ships had jumped back to Torval 2.
The admiral quickly ordered the fleet ships to jump back to Torval 2.
This cat and mouse game continued non-stop, with both Garth’s ships and fleet ships going between Torval 2 and the five remaining Periphery worlds, Volante, Gael, Hallmar, Montaro and Oisin.
Admiral Badstubner manually gave the order to have all seventy ships follow Garth’s ships as they bounced back and forth across the six star systems.
Finally tiring of this game, the next time Garth’s ships jumped from Torval 2, this time to Oisin, the smallest of the Periphery worlds, the admiral decided to not follow with the entire fleet. Instead, he sent only send one ship to follow to Oisin.
Admiral Badstubner waited expectantly, watching the sensor data and listening carefully to the lone ship’s transmissions to see what Garth’s fleet would do. Garth’s ships seemed to ignore the difference between one ship and seventy ships, jumping almost instantly back to Torval 2.
Relieved, the admiral decided to make this his standard course of action, so he left a single battle ship at each Periphery world in turn, which allowed him to keep the sixty-five other fleet battle ships comfortably near Torval 2.
As this pattern of jumping from world to world continued for two more days, the crews in all the fleet ships relaxed more and more, seeing this as the new normal. Since no hostilities has broken out, the level of concern grew less and less.
However, the pattern did not last forever. After the second day of relentless jumping, Garth’s battle ships jumped to Oisin near space, however this time they stayed there. The Admiral had stayed awake for two days straight reviewing the situation and giving orders, but now that the pattern had settled down to a known pattern, he had just started some much-needed sleep. With orders to immediately awaken him if the pattern changed, the admiral was awoken with the news that all forty-two of Garth’s battle ships had jumped to Oisin near space and stayed there.
Wearily, the Admiral gave the order to have the sixty-five fleet battle ships jump from Torval 2 to Oisin near space.
Once the fleet ships jumped to Oisin, Garth’s ships immediately jumped to Torval 2. The admiral had no choice but to order the fleet ships back to Torval 2.
This new tactic of Garth’s, to not jump until the large fleet jumped, continued for two more days. By this time, the admiral was even more exhausted since he had to manually give the order to have the fleet ships jump.
As this new pattern became routine, the admiral finally changed to a standing order to automatically follow the ships as they jumped, so he could finally get some sleep. Shortly afterwards, the pattern changed again, and the admiral was awakened yet again.
The next time Garth’s ships jumped from Hallmar, he left five ships there and only jumped with thirty-seven ships.
The admiral was severely sleep deprived and had a hard time focusing on the issue. When he finally understood that Garth had split up his ships, he had to decide what to do. Wearily he decided to leave ten ships at Hallmar.
This pattern continued until there were ten fleet battleships and five of Garth’s battle ships at each Periphery world, with Garth’s other seventeen battle ships jumping to Torval 2 and then to one of the five Periphery worlds. Once again, this pattern lasted for slightly more than two days, when it again changed.
All forty-two of Garth’s ships jumped to Torval 2, from all the Periphery worlds. Again, the admiral was awoken from a deep sleep, but this was such a major change that occurred so quickly that the admiral quickly commanded all the fleet ships to return to Torval 2.
Just as quickly, all of Garth’s ships jumped to Volante, Saul’s home world. The admiral quickly commanded all seventy of the fleet ships to jump to Volante as well. They had jumped what seemed like innumerable times so not many of the crew members were paying close attention when they jumped. Of course, they jumped to the same spots that they had jumped over and over again. It would have taken much longer to calculate a new jump spot every time. They had done that originally, but after they had to repeatedly jump at an instant’s notice, they had settled into a pattern of five different jump spots per ship and they randomly jumped to one of those five spots. This time, however, there were multiple nuclear weapons waiting at each of the jump sites and the crew members were not ready for them. Of the seventy ships, twenty were damaged beyond saving in the ensuing blasts. An additional thirty of them were slightly damaged before they jumped. Only twenty of the ship’s crews were paying close attention and were fast enough to avoid damage altogether.
Admiral Badstubner’s crew, fortunately, reacted quickly enough to jump back to Torval 2 without any damage to his ship. The admiral quickly assessed the damage to the fleet ships and shook his head in amazement. How could they have fallen into this trap so easily?
He ordered each of the fleet ships to generate several hundred jump points for each of the five remaining Periphery worlds, and for Torval 2 as well. He might be fooled once, but not twice. He was told that this would take slightly more than twenty-four hours to calculate, even with the advanced processing power that Torval 2 possessed. It was just an incredible number of calculations for so many jump points and so many ships.
– – –
Garth had held his breath when they had finally sprung their trap on the fleet battle ships. He was fairly certain that the fleet ships’ crews would be bored stiff by the repetitive nature of all their jumps. He also had high confidence that his nuclear attack would be a surprise. This combination meant that the chance of success was relatively high. He had intentionally chosen the surprise attack at Saul’s home world since getting this strategic world at their mercy was the next step in the plan.
He watched as the fleet ships jumped to the same positions that they had jumped so many times before. The nuclear barrage was perfectly executed against the fleet battle ships. Garth loved it when a well-conceived plan came together and was so well-executed – nothing had gone wrong with the plan.
Fifty of the fleet ships were able to jump away from Volante, though Garth doubted that they would chance returning any time soon. Just to be sure, he had his ships be ready with another salvo of nuclear weapons. In the meantime, Garth was going to enjoy this success.
He sent his battle ships to each of the stranded fleet battle ships, removing their previous crews and supplanting them with his own. He would do his best to repair the ships and add them to his growing number of ships. Some might take years to fix, but others might be made fully functional in a matter of weeks. Attaching them to his ships, they were able to jump to one of his repair facilities that was far from any other ship traffic. The odds of this facility being discovered were very slim.
Next, Garth established contact with Saul.
Garth said, “Saul, as you can tell you are totally surrounded by my battle ships. I will give you a one-time offer that expires in one hour. If you can get the four remaining Periphery worlds to sign a trade agreement that enables me to be the sole protector of the five remaining Periphery worlds, then I will guarantee that I will not take away your independence and in fact the terms are quite generous so you will all actually end up ahead. It will be up to you, however, to convi
nce them all to join in this agreement.”
He paused then continued with a menacing tone, “If you cannot get them all to sign this agreement, then I will similarly guarantee that I will destroy Volante and then make the same offer to one of the other four Periphery worlds.”
Saul sputtered and started coughing uncontrollably. Finally, he uttered, “Your terms are preposterous. How could I ever get them to agree?”
Garth didn’t blink at all when he said, “That is your concern. If any planet does not agree, then the offer is rescinded and Volante, and alas you, will be destroyed. Your hour starts right now. I recommend that you terminate this discussion and start talking with your counterparts ASAP.”
Saul turned an ashen shade of gray and immediately terminated the link.
Saul quickly looked over the terms of the special trade agreement and realized that the terms were actually quite generous for Volante as well as for the other Periphery worlds – much better than he would have thought. Saul didn’t know if he could trust Garth, but he realized that he really didn’t have any choice.
Saul quickly set up a vid call with the leaders of the other four remaining Periphery worlds, asking each to agree to the trade agreement.
With such a short amount of time to decide, each of the leaders aired their objections. Saul gave each leader five minutes, and then saw there were less than thirty minutes remaining until the deadline expired.
As the deadline approached, Saul pleaded with each of the leaders to accept the trade agreement. He knew that if even one of them objected, Volante would be destroyed. When he made the case that if Volante was destroyed, then Garth would then go to each one of the remaining Periphery worlds and propose a similar agreement, but with worse terms. He felt a small white lie would add to the story, and he would most likely never be found out.