by Ira Tabankin
“Fleet Admiral, thank you. To be honest with you, they were not our invention. The Overlords showed us how to merge our people and our AIs. There was a very heated debate in my council room about the issue, in the end, since our beloved Overlords gave us the technology as they’d given us so many other wonderous devices and methods, we trusted them. My ancestor was privately worried, so he ordered our AI experts at the time to develop what we called a fail-safe protocol into the combined people and AIs. We’ve never had to use the fail-safe and I pray we don’t. Because of the heated debate which almost caused a civil war and led to many civil uprisings, the issue is overly sensitive to my people.”
Kalteck nodded, “Sire, I meant no offense. I had no idea how sensitive the issue was. I would like to review your fail-safe measures. Maybe my AI can provide some additional security.”
The Emperor smiled, “I would appreciate that very much. Let’s move on and discuss how our ships can work together…”
The two human admirals and the senior Neanderthal military officers spent two weeks discussing plans. The group watched simulations of the ships fighting and the group spent three days on the Lincoln and three days on one of the newest Neanderthal ships. At the end of the three weeks, a treaty had been agreed to. Rhett suggested the Lincoln take the treaty to Earth for the politicians to sign it (he prayed), while Kalteck remained behind with his ship to provide all of the assistance about the enemy he could.
The Presidents of America, China and Russia were outraged Rhett had taken it upon himself to negotiate a defense treaty with another system without consulting them. Each spent hours explaining why Rhett had overstepped his authority. President Haley privately met with Rhett, “Admiral, we have a problem. The others are incredibly angry with you for overstepping your authority. I read the agreement and I like it. I’m willing to sign it right now, but the Chinese are upset they didn’t get a chance to sit at the table with the Neanderthals. They want to return to their system and have a chance to renegotiate the agreement. How do you think their Emperor would react if they and the Russians did so?”
“Madam President, I believe the Emperor would be very hospitable. He would listen and then decide Earth wasn’t organized enough to ally with in a major war so he would politely decide to either work with the Overlords, our enemy or ignore our call for help. If he did, we will lose. No question about it, based on the information we shared…”
“Information you weren’t authorized to share and most likely placed the Earth at risk, something we’ll get around to discussing at another date. I believe you. I don’t know how to make the other two let alone the UN accept the fact this is the best agreement we’re going to get. Can you ask Kalteck to return and tell the others to sign or we’ll lose the war?”
“Madam President, I can take a ship back to their system to talk to Kalteck…”
“That I’m sorry to say you can’t do. I promised the other leaders I would ground you until this issue is sorted out.”
Rhett nodded, “Madam President, then my usefulness as the Fleet Admiral is a title only, I am no longer interested in remaining in the service of leaders who don’t support me. I have served my time in uniform under two different names. I thank you for your support and with your permission I will take my leave.” Rhett pulled his five small stars off his collar and placed them on the desk between him and President Haley.
“Rhett, where will you go?”
“I think as a private citizen, that is my business now. I wish the Earth luck in your upcoming war.”
“Wait, that sounds like you’re planning on leaving the planet. How do you intend to manage that? Did Kalteck give you your own ship? Where are you planning on going?”
Rhett got up, placed his military ID card on the table next to his stars in front of the President and turned around, “Madam President, thank you and good day.” Rhett then walked out of the new Situation Room. His driver held the door of the armored car open for him. “Thank you, but I will be finding my own transportation now. I have resigned my commission. I am not longer a member of the United Space Force.” His driver stared at Rhett with shock and surprise in his eyes. “Sir, who is going to lead us against the invaders?”
“Not my problem.”
Rhett reached into his uniform and he placed his hand on the small blue box, “Everett Yahnig” I miss that name. “Code Yahnig, Kalteck 001. My coordinates are as follows.”
Rhett stood in the middle of an empty parking lot when Kalteck’s old life pod landed. Rhett entered the pod which took him to Kalteck’s hidden base on the dark side of the moon. The Secret Service reported to the President that the Fleet Admiral had left in an unknown ship and where he went was unknown. The President nodded thinking, I thought so, I knew he must have had a plan to go someplace safe. Someplace only he and Kalteck knew about. Damn him, we, the Earth needs him, and he left us without any way to reach him, I don’t know if I’m happy for him or pissed he left us without a military leader.
Rhett landed at Kalteck’s base. He used his access code to unseal the armored door. Inside he found another ship, one Kalteck had told him was a ship nanites had been building for years as an emergency escape ship. It wasn’t as powerful as Kalteck’s ship, but it could open a wormhole and could take Rhett anywhere he wanted to go.
Chapter 22
The Russian and Chinese leaders were very upset with President Haley for allowing Rhett to simply resign and walk away. President Melotove asked, “Now that the alien’s chosen one has left who do you think he will allow to lead us? Do you even think Kalteck will return? Since your Secret Service reported the Admiral got into an unknown ship and it vertically and silently left the planet, we have to assume he had a secret way to communicate with Kalteck. Why did you push him?”
President Haley’s face got dark red, “May I remind the two of you, you’re the ones who didn’t trust him. You’re the ones who wanted to push him aside until we learned more about these Neanderthals. He brought us an excellent agreement, in fact one that is better than I expected and you two let your egos get in the way, so now we may have lost our allies and our Fleet Admiral. Worst of all, we might have lost our alien guardian who has helped us for almost a hundred years.”
The Chinese President angrily stood up. “Speaking of one hundred years, did you ever learn why the Fleet Admiral is still as young as when the alien first arrived? What did the alien do to your Admiral that enables him to live past one hundred? Does the alien know the secret to eternal life, a secret he’s not sharing with us? We want to know the secret before we agree to agreement with the Neanderthals.”
President Haley shook her head, “Are you saying that if the enemy arrived tonight you wouldn’t send your ships to fight for Earth?”
“We will fight, but we want that secret and we want it NOW,” smiled the Russian President.
“I have no control over the alien, I don’t even know if he’ll respond without the Admiral. I know, we all know, he had a special bond with the alien so if the alien picked the Admiral up and took him someplace safe and then left us defenseless what do you suggest we do? The Admiral helped design our ships. We know he has a unique implant and a way to contact the alien. He’s spent more time in space than anyone. He’s designed most of our weapons, I don’t know if we can win without him. You want a secret which might not even exist, you’ve allowed your egos to place the entire planet at risk. You may have doomed all of the planet’s people.”
President Melotove looked around the virtual conference room table, “So how do we get him back?”
“I don’t know! I have no idea where he went. The small ship he took was so stealthy none of our systems recorded it was here or left our atmosphere. We only know he got into it because my Secret Service watched him, and they didn’t have orders to stop him.”
President Xi asked, “Why didn’t you arrest him? Why did you allow him to just walk out of the shelter?”
“This isn’t China, our people have freedom t
o move and he hadn’t committed any crimes which required his arrest. I’m more concerned now then I was a few hours ago, if we couldn’t track a small ship, how we’re going to track a fleet. The fleet had faith in the Admiral’s leadership and battle skills, none of our other officers have the tenth of the time he had in space. Gentlemen, we need to face the fact we lost our best chance to win the upcoming war.”
The three leaders looked at each other wondering the same thing, what should they do now.
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Rhett sat in front of a large monitor; he recorded a message which he sent with the life pod to the edge of the system. Once at the assigned location the modified pod opened a wormhole and jumped to the Neanderthal system. Once arriving, the pod sent the message to Kalteck’s AI who pinged Kalteck’s implant. Kalteck reviewed the message. He excused himself from a meeting with one hundred of the Neanderthal ship captains, most had difficulties overcoming the fact Kalteck wasn’t a member of the Overlords.
Kalteck entered his ship, “Show me Rhett’s entire message.” Stupid humans, okay, if they want to play, I can play on a level they never knew existed. “AI, issue my excuses to the Neanderthal Emperor and offices, tell them I was urgently recalled to Earth over a crisis and will return. Then return us to the Earth system. I assume the lift pod has been docked and stored on board.”
“It has.”
“Good. First, we’ll pick up Rhett and then we’ll visit the three leaders via a virtual meeting from my base on the moon. I am angry, I need to calm myself before I meet with the three blind mice.”
“Sir, three blind mice?”
“The three presidents.”
“Leaving the system now.”
Kalteck met Rhett with open arms, “My friend, I’m sorry that what I warned you about came true. I’m sorry for you. I was worried the closer we got to the time of the invasion the more paranoid the leaders of your world would become. I’ve learned it’s a trait of you humans. Where would you like to go? I can take you anywhere you’d like to go. You’ve studied the other systems, pick one and I’ll take you there, no questions asked, you’ve earned that right and the right to live out your life in peace. Maybe you’d like to take my spare ship and become an explorer.”
“What about you? Are you going to return here or to the Neanderthal’s system? No, I know you. You’re going to put your ship into its stealth mode and watch the invasion, aren’t you?”
Kalteck laughed, “You do know me well, I assume you want me to find a way to convince your leaders to place you back in charge of your combined military. Am I correct?”
“We know each other well. We should, we’ve been together for over 80 years. Yes, I’d like to be back in control of the military to hold off the invasion. I would like to see the conclusion of the project you started me on back in 47.”
“Are you sure? Are you really sure? The odds are extremely high you’ll die in the battle. If you die and join the Creator of All I will mourn your loss.”
“My friend, I should have died a long time ago. I’m the oldest living human on the planet, maybe the oldest since Moses. I am prepared to die. If I can destroy one of their ships, my death will be meaningful. If I can buy Earth enough time to complete the sleep ships and get them away with enough humans to save my race, then I’ll meet the Creator of All with a smile on face.”
“If that is your final answer, then let’s contact the three blind mice.”
“The three blind mice? That’s a great name for them.”
“Yeah, they also remind me of, see nothing, hear nothing and know nothing. My AI is setting up the call. Please wait in the mess-hall until I call you. I want to have a little fun with them before we all make up.”
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The three world leaders were surprised when their monitors flashed and Kalteck appeared in their conference rooms, “May I have your attention? I just returned from meeting with the Neanderthal Emperor who I informed that the three of you had rejected his offer of a combined military cooperation.”
The Chinese President yelled, “NO! We didn’t reject their proposal. We only wanted to make some minor adjustments, nothing major.”
Kalteck leered at the three leaders, “I’m sure you all read paragraph one hundred and five that stated the overall commander of the combined fleets would be Fleet Admiral Rhett McIntire, thus without him you have no agreement. You terminated him and thus, you breached the agreement before you even signed it. I believe that is a galactic record to breach an agreement. I wish you well in your defense of Earth. As you know the Admiral was a close friend of mine and thus I have decided I don’t have faith in any of your other officers so I am withdrawing my ship and my resources to another system, one I will be taking the Admiral to with me.”
President Melotove said, “You can’t do that. You’ll leave us defenseless.”
“You didn’t care about being left defenseless when you fired your Fleet Admiral. You thought you’d be fine without him and you were fine with that. So why now are you concerned?”
President Haley said, “We didn’t fire him, he resigned his commission…”
“After you claimed he’d exceeded his authority by doing what you sent him to do. You work in very funny and strange ways. I support the Admiral’s decision and would have done the same in his position. Your feelings were hurt that a simple military officer could accomplish a treaty without you.”
The three were silent when Kalteck threw the truth in their faces.
President Melotove stood up, “I, for one, vote to reinstate the Fleet Admiral to his position.”
President’s Xi and Haley quickly agreed. Melotove said, “Okay we’ve voted to reinstate the Admiral, will that change your plans?”
“No, if I remember correctly, you didn’t take his position away. He will have to accept, and I’d advise him not to unless you agree not to pull this little stunt again. I can’t hear you…”
The three agreed. Kalteck smiled, “Rhett, would you please join us.” The Russian yelled, “It was a set-up, the American was on his ship all the time. He played us.”
Kalteck pointed at the Russian, “So you wish to change your vote? Melotove you’re a fool, I told you he was my friend. I told you I was going to take him with me, how would I do that if he wasn’t with me? Admiral, maybe you should get comfortable, we can reach your new home very soon, my people will welcome a hero like you.”
President Xi shook his head, “You are correct. We agree. Did you hear us, we agree? Fleet Admiral, will you accept and return to the overall command of Earth’s forces?”
Chapter 23
Time was on the side of Earth because the enemy, the Neanderthal’s Overlords, spent an extra year rebuilding their fleet. They also decided they wanted to first visit the Neanderthal’s Emperor to make sure they were ready to provide the support the Overlords had saved and nurtured them for. The Emperor bowed while silently cursing the Overlords in his head. “Yes, my lord, my fleet is ready to carry out all of your orders. We have met your requirements and have built two hundred battle cruisers and one hundred of our new battleships. Of course, there are our hundred thousand new fighters…”
“Yes, we took notice of these fighters and some of the changes in their design which wasn’t included in the design documents we gave you. Where did these changes come from? Who gave them to you? Are you serving two masters?”
“My Lord, no one gave them to us. We developed themselves ourselves. We have our own scientists and weapons designers who learned as we went. We built the design you gave us and then as we flew them, we learned how to improve them.”
“You did? Very interesting. I am interested in meeting these scientists. Your education system has greatly improved since the last time we were here. I am overly impressed, yes, very impressed. You have served us well. When the current battle is over you will be richly rewarded. You will be given another system to govern. What do you have to say to that?”
“My Lord, I, my people, we live to
serve you.”
“Excellent, I am very proud of you and your people. Let me show you our battle plan and the system we are going to jointly invade. I have decided that your ships will lead our massive invasion. Victory will be yours to claim.”
“My Lord, I thank you for the honor of leading the battle.”
“Come, let’s review the fleet one more time together before we leave for the battle. It will be glorious, you will win a massive victory for your people. You will add an additional star to your slash. Your people will worship you.”
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The Overlords made the mistake of trusting the Neanderthals. They didn’t fully scan the entire system. If they had, they would have discovered a new class of ship hidden in the asteroids behind the eighth planet. These were vastly improved battleships that incorporated the lessons Kalteck warned them about and some of the tricks the human Fleet Admiral taught the Neanderthals. The Overlords also missed that most of the Neanderthal battle cruisers were an older design and were crewed by androids, a loss the Emperor considered acceptable since most of the android conversions had been criminals who’d lost their right to peacefully exist within their society so, as their punishment, they were converted to androids. To enhance their punishment, part of their original brain was left in place, so they knew who they had been but had no means to stop the AIs from controlling their actions.