The Raygin War

  “Good enough for me. Let’s get going.”

  At first Ayashe and Tews watched through a large viewing screen. The staff gave Mr. Phlop his dinner. It contained a special sedative to force him to relax. Tews explained this form of covert manipulation was why hypnosis was banned. The target had no idea he was being placed in a trance. He told her it’s all about control and manipulation.

  Within minutes of finishing his meal, Lieutenant Phlop fell asleep on his bed. The med team wasted no time wheeling in several pieces of equipment to monitor him. Tews began to talk to the lieutenant using a gentle, slow, and rhythmic voice. Everyone had to be quiet during the interrogation. Within minutes brain activities confirmed Tews was in contact with the lieutenant’s active, but subconscious mind.

  “Tell me Lieutenant Phlop, what did you think when you first realized there are aliens in the universe?”

  The lieutenant struggled to answer the question. Ayashe watched him move his neck muscles as if under strain. Tews is clever. He is not going straight at the locked memories. He’s going after peripheral memories. Building a new neural network in an effort to open up old memories. Once again, she marveled at the team surrounding Mac. They were the perfect storm of key people with specific talents. If you tried to build a team like this, you couldn’t.

  After about thirty minutes of questioning, the answers started coming with less labor. Memory clusters were beginning to link.

  “Do you know the Ogarii person called Wineena?” asked Tews.

  “You mean the overseer?” said the lieutenant.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes. I know her.”

  “What did you talk about the last time you spoke with her?”

  “She told me I could be the richest human alive if I helped kill our leader.”

  “How are you supposed to kill the planetary president?” asked Tews.

  The lieutenant twitched and strained. “Not the planetary leader.”

  “Who did Wineena want you to kill?”

  “Commodore McCormack, the top military leader.”

  The answer shocked Tews. He couldn’t come up with a follow-up question. Ayashe could see the fear in the staff as they processed the lieutenant’s response. Dread filled her heart. Mac was walking into a clever Ogarii trap.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Enemy Is Here

  Mac could tell Ayashe had important information. As soon as she stepped through the elevator’s open doors her eyes locked onto him. She moved toward him without noticing anyone else. Was she afraid? Something had unnerved his wife.

  As she approached he said, “What’s wrong?”

  “What is the real threat to the Ogarii?” asked Ayashe.

  Without hesitation Mac said, “Our military and yours.”

  “Yes, but I don’t think they know about our existence or they would have sent scouts looking for us. Let’s presume they don’t know. Who would you go after if you were the Ogarii?”

  “The leader.”

  “Which one, Mac?”

  “The presi… uh, okay. I see where you’re going. I’d go after – me. So, you think this whole attack is a trap set for me?”

  “Yes. I have no doubt. Tews broke the mind block the Ogarii used on Lieutenant Phlop. It’s been you this whole time, Mac. You dropping in their lap on Rayne must have freaked them out. They couldn’t ensure your death on the planet so they let you escape. It would have ruined all their plans if you went into hiding after leaving Rayne. They needed you leading the human fleet as they sprung their trap.”

  “Clever. I could see myself doing something similar. Misdirection is one of my favorite tools. Good work, you may have saved the war.”

  “What do we do? The whole Raygin fleet is coming for you.”

  “We set a trap within a trap,” said Mac. “I need to buy us time, so we can become better prepared. Looking at their approach, I didn’t understand why they were using flank protection with such a large force. I would have expanded and thinned out the exterior ships. Now I see their plan. As they approach the flank ships will move farther and farther away from the main fleet. They will make a move to come in from our backside and close the trap. This overseer is no fool. She has formulated a good invasion plan. A good general adjusts like she did when we discovered too much about them.”

  Mac could see the flush in Ayashe’s face. Uh oh.

  She moved close to him and whispered, “I could make my eyes flash orange if you would like?”

  Mac stepped back and looked her up and down, pausing long enough on her breasts so she noticed. “I don’t want you to change anything. You are already perfect?”

  Her face lit up with a big smile. “You shall be rewarded for that remark tonight.”

  He kissed her on her headband tattoo. “You know, I think it’s time to call it a night. I’ve done as much as I can. Come on. Let’s go.”

  She giggled. “Get back to work lazybones.” As an afterthought she said, “Mac, I’m worried. What if we’re wrong?”

  “It means we drew the short stick and we’re fucked.”

  She laughed. “You’re so articulate.”

  “I’m a ground pounder honey. Always give it to me straight. Let me improvise, adapt, and overcome.”

  On hearing Mac’s response one of his personal guards interjected an, “Oohrah.”

  The bridge went up for grabs at the well-known ground pounder expression. Mac and Ayashe hadn’t noticed everyone was listening to their conversation.

  I have to learn to be a little more discrete. Mac turned to look at the supportive guard.

  Seeing Mac staring at him the young soldier thought Mac was mad at him. “Sorry, commodore.”

  “It’s Mac,” he grinned. He looked at the bridge crew and said, “I didn’t have a chance to finish answering Ayashe’s question. Let me say, but I think we’re right.”

  The young soldier looked into Mac’s eyes and said, “Say the word Mac. I’ll follow you to the gates of Hades. We all saw your films. We are behind you one hundred percent.”

  “What films?” asked Mac.

  Lieutenant Muween stepped forward. “I took the liberty of putting together several video montages, sir. We used fight scenes to show the humans what we are up against. You were in many of the videos and it seems as though there were… umm, how should I say this? Some unintentional consequences.”

  “What might some of the unintentional consequences be?”

  “Com companies have requested more vid clips of you. They called you videogenic. Requests for sniper school are up over a thousand percent. Enlistment is through the roof. Thanks to the vice admiral, Lightning Brigade schools sponsored by the military spec ops are popping up everywhere. With the development of tachyon communications, you are the most famous human in our universe! The ship building facilities are beyond full staffing levels. Your popularity is helping to weaponize the entire human race. I could go on and on.”

  Mac felt his checks flush red.

  “Now, now, Mac.” said Ayashe, “You told me yourself, wars need heroes. Accept it as good for the morale and move on.”

  Mac took a deep breath, looked at Lieutenant Muween and said, “Please, don’t make it about me.”

  “I didn’t sir. It’s just everyone is looking for a real leader. They understand everything is at risk here. To put it in words you might understand better, if I may?”

  Looking at her with tilted head Mac said, “Yeah, go ahead, lets hear it.”

  “Accept it and adapt.”

  “You mean I’m fucked.”

  “Yes sir. You’re fucked as far as fame goes.”

  Ayashe and the bridge crew laughed.

  “Alright. Enough fun and games. Let’s figure out how to kick some alien ass.”

  This time the bridge gave him an “Oohrah,” in unison.

  A sinking feeling crept into his stomach. He realized this scene might wind up in a video clip. He looked at Muween. She was already watching him with a big smile on her face. She raised
her right hand and gave him a thumb up signal. Let it go, he told Mac. Let it go.

  That night Ayashe and Mac were intimate. The sex was better than anything he had ever experienced. He rated it higher than when he paid a small fortune for a night with a Partuvian prostitute. God, he loved Ayashe so much. When he questioned her concerning what she wanted to talk about, she said it should wait for a better time.

  Lying with his head in her lap he said, “Remember, no secrets.”

  “It’s not a secret,” she said as she looked into his eyes. She rubbed her hand through his hair. “I need your undivided attention for more time than you can give me right now.” He heard her gentle voice say, “I’ll wait. It’s all good. Relax, relax Mac.” His eyes began to flutter and he fell into a peaceful deep sleep.

  The Raygin fleet continued to advance.

  Mac woke up feeling great. For the next couple of days, he worked on a plan of attack. Some military ships began to arrive on scene. He decided not to send them to help the infested planets. No one had heard from the Planetary President for the last couple days. Mac believed he had already snuck off the planet. The humans on the infested planets were holding their own. This was thanks to help from civilian ships and the Lightning Brigade.

  He had two primary objectives. Destroy as many enemy ships as possible and don’t engage in an all-out battle to the end. They needed to buy time so they could relocate ships, creating new ships, perform upgrades, and develop new weapons. The UFC needed time to increase staffing levels and planets needed time to install better planetary defenses. The list went on and on. Time was the common thread. Right now, he needed every war ship available to pull off his plan.

  Ships worked around the clock setting up a number of debris fields. They planned to redirect the enemy fleet into several traps. It was slow going because Mac’s ships were designed for war, not moving asteroids. The Tonk belt miners located in hundreds of solar systems throughout the universe contacted Mac and offered the use of their trained personnel and oversized equipment. The Tonkers, as they are called, helped Mac move mountain-sized asteroids into tactical positions. Thanks to them his plan might work. He still needed Smitty and Tinker to come through for him. He started to make his way to cargo deck bravo to check on their progress.

  As he walked through the passageways everyone greeted him. He pondered about his past and how he had loved being a simple soldier. After all this, his days of blissful anonymity would be gone forever. The elevator door opened and Mac found himself looking at a mess. He saw hundreds of pods. Some looked near completion, others had their guts hanging out of them. He estimated at least two thousand people were working on the high-tech equipment. He had a feeling of disappointment. It wouldn’t be the first time he had to make do.

  His mind scrambled for a new plan as his eyes continued to survey the scene. He realized no one was beating on equipment, cursing, or standing motionless in confusion. They have done it! The apparent disarray was nothing more than what mass production looked like in an open area.

  He saw Tinker, Smitty, and Apeiron talking near a centralized drafting table. As he walked toward the trio a continuous host of workers greeted him over and over. They all knew him. Damn vids. Thank God Ayashe is not here. She wouldn’t let me live this down.

  Tinker looked up. “Mac. We were getting ready to come to the bridge to talk to you. You didn’t need to come to us.”

  “It’s okay. I don’t mind. It’s nice to get away for a few minutes. It clears my mind. I can’t believe all these people know who I am!”

  Tinker smiled. “I’m telling you, you don’t know the half of it. During break I can’t even eat! I spend all my time answering questions about you. I have never witnessed anything like it.”

  “I don’t want to think about it,” said Mac. He changed the subject. “Tell me what’s going on. I was hoping to have about five hundred modified walkers.” He estimated the number and realized they were far short. They had worked so hard, he regretted saying he hoped for more. “To be honest, what you did is amazing. I’ll take whatever you can give me.”

  Smitty laughed. “Don’t you go worrying your pretty little videogenic face, sir.” Smitty spread his arms. “We have three hundred and two walkers here, and seven hundred are being built on four other battleships. You can thank Apeiron for coming up with the idea of using other ships.”

  Mac looked at Apeiron and said, “Thank you.” He swore the robot’s chest stuck out as if it were proud.

  “Commodore McCormack please come to the bridge,” spoke a female voice on Mac’s personal com unit.

  “Gotta go, nice work,” said Mac. He spun around and jogged back to the elevator.

  When Mac stepped onto the bridge, the admiral wasted no time with greetings. He pointed at the view screen. “We received a sentinel alarm in the Artemis sector. No visual. The grav detector identified the appearance of a small target. It’s stationary. We are running a full system check.”

  “Diagnostic complete admiral. All systems check out,” said the com officer.

  “It appears we have a small cloaked vessel snooping around.”

  “Perfect,” said Mac. “Computer, activate Flicker in Artemis sector. Authorization code Mac na-s-gi-ya-i.” He chose People’s Nation words not stored in the computer for authorization codes.

  Thirty seconds later the Admiral said, “The cloaked vessel is gone. What did you do?”

  “It was Ayashe’s idea. She heard about the Medusa projector Tinker developed. She asked if it could work in space. Turns out it can under the right circumstances. We located interstellar clouds with characteristic energies in the 21 cm range.” Mac saw a puzzled look on the admiral’s face. “They found clouds loaded with hydrogen. Our engineers set up several pods with projectors. The small spy ship thought it detected a flotilla containing two hundred of our battleships patrolling the area. When they play the vids back, the signal will be weak, but they should attribute that to the distance.”

  “I would like to have heard the pilots’ thoughts!” said the admiral.

  “Each minute we can slow the Raygin fleet down buys us more time to prepare.”

  “Incoming call from Mahpee,” said the com officer. “Go ahead sir.”

  “Mahpee, Mac here. Go ahead.”

  “We have left Nokomis. I am carrying a gift for you from my engineers. Nashta and grandfather also came up with a new fighter design. It combines Raygin, Human, and our own technology. I have sent you the specs. Any bioluminescent organisms in the fluid will work, but we used Vibrio bacteria. They replicate and are plentiful in salt water. How is the war effort going?”

  “I wish we had more time. I decided we could not afford to split the fleet. There will be no space support or military ships to evacuate the planets. The Raygin have portable shields and have tunneled underground. After an initial loss of human lives, the infested planets are standing their ground. It would take us months and hundreds of ships to evacuate the affected planets.”

  “You made a difficult choice, Mac. If it means anything, I would have made the same decision. I will arrive soon with your package. My fleet is hidden so we may surprise the enemy when the time is right. For the last twenty-five years I have wanted revenge against the enemy responsible for killing my wife. Soon I will have vengeance. Is my daughter okay?”

  “Yes. She is well and helpful. She said if I talked to you to tell you, ‘na-s-gi-a-ge-yv tsi-ge-yu-a ni-hi.’”

  “I may tease you Mac but know my daughter has chosen well. Tell her I love her too. And Mac, you will be like the u-we-tsi I never had. I must go. I will meet you in mere seconds.”

  Mac smiled. “Okay, Mahpee, I’ll see you soon.”

  *****

  For the next couple of days Mac and Ayashe worked on creating plans, while everyone else worked on implementing them. The Raygin continued to attack human populated planets using the Osa tactics. There was nothing they could do to save billions of lives.

  The micro probes watch
ed, tracked, and recorded the enemy. They broadcast the Raygin fleet’s advancement vids to the Constellation. The Ogarii remained unseen. Their sleek ships hid within pods of Raygin ships. The intensity of preparations reached a peak. The humans knew the enemy would arrive within days. There was no doubt. They needed more time.

  Work on the modified walkers was complete. They were being deployed per instructions. The next new project cluttered all bravo deck. Parts were everywhere and still being created by the thousands. The new single piloted fighter design earned the name, Screamer.

  The first Screamer rolled off the Constellation’s assembly line. Within hours it passed all static tests with no errors. When Ayashe arrived, she heard the engineers talking about finding a test pilot. She volunteered without a thought.

  Apeiron gave her a stare with his black robot looking eyes. “Do you think we should clear it with Mac first?”

  “From where did the plans for these fighters originate?” Ayashe asked.

  “Go no further. I understand your logic. Are you familiar with the design and controls?”

  “Yes. I read the material my father sent. I understand the People’s Nation have named the craft a Screamer. Do you know why?”

  “The story I heard is when the first test pilot accelerated the new fighter it was so fast it surprised him. He screamed,” said Apeiron. “The name caught on.”

  Smitty’s eyes enlarged. “What if she gets hurt? We are as good as dead. You’ve seen what Mac can do.”

  “I will take appropriate precautions. Don’t kid yourself. If I get hurt, I too fear Mac’s response. Come on guys, I have complete confidence in our engineers and you. All of you have seen what they can do. I promise I won’t take any risks.”

  Using a voice resembling Mahpee, Apeiron said, “Ayashe, it is more than you, I worry about.”

  Deflecting the statement to avoid any questions she said, “We should all hope for each other to be safe.” She gave Apeiron a hard stare. “I’ll tell you what, you can send an escort out with me.”