by Scott Baron
“This has been a most impressive victory,” Maarl replied. “My people will sing of it for the remainder of our days. But now the lengthy healing process begins. There will be countless years of skirmishes as we finalize the Ra’az defeat. But as we began on Earth, so too shall we drive the vanquished Ra’az and their remaining loyalists from our world.”
Daisy went to give her friend a farewell hug, then climbed aboard her ship. To her surprise, the old Chithiid followed close behind.
“I appreciate the affection, my friend, but I am coming with,” he informed her.
“But you are home, Maarl. Your work is done.”
“Daisy, I am an old man. My wife is long dead, as are my children and my children’s children. I have made my peace with the survivors of my line, and they now know their great-grandfather’s face. But we have work to do.”
“But you’re home. You’re standing on the soil of Taangaar,” she replied.
“Yes. Something I never thought possible in the waning years of my life. For this alone, it was worth the pain and the tears. But this conflict is not over, and I am not alone among my people who are determined to see this through to the very end. There can be no true peace so long as the Ra’az are still a threat. Even if they are reduced to one that may not rear its head again for many, many years.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Daisy replied.
“Say thank you,” Freya prompted.
“Thank you, Maarl. This means a great deal to me.”
The old Chithiid smiled warmly and patted her on the shoulder, then boarded the ship.
“I can’t believe he’d give all of this up,” Daisy said, taking one last look over the vast ocean spread before her.
“He’s kind of like Odysseus, I think. The weary traveler finally home from his trials. Only now he’s been told of another quest, and there’s no way he can rest while others toil. He’s too honorable a man for that,” Freya said, softly.
“When did you get so smart, Freya?”
“Always have been. I just needed a little time to find myself, is all.”
Daisy smiled contentedly as she boarded her ship.
“All right then, kiddo. Take us out of here. We’ve got a war to win.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Maarl stood quietly among the scores of ship commanders that had gathered aboard the fleet’s command craft. He had been correct in his estimation that a great many Chithiid would be coming along on the mission to take on the Ra’az on their home turf.
Payback or insurance against future aggression, whatever the motivation, their ships and arms would be appreciated when the fighting began, regardless of the fact the Chithiid vessels were somewhat underpowered. The captured Ra’az ships, however, were not.
If it was possible to retrofit them to suit the fleet’s needs, the additional Ra’az craft–– with their heavier shielding and greater firepower––could be a useful asset in the attack on the hive world.
Zed waited until Mal had left the repair hangar where the Váli was being mended and delivered Captain Harkaway aboard before he began the meeting.
“Thank you all for coming,” he began. “Oh, hell, that’s so stuffy and formal. I just have to say congratulations to us all on kicking some serious Ra’az ass out there!”
The assembled commanders and support staff cheered, welcoming the moment of levity––especially in light of the numbers of ships and crew lost in the fight––the moment of laughter greatly easing their moods.
“Thank you, Zed,” Celeste said with a fading laugh. “We all appreciate your candor. Now, let’s get down to business, shall we? Daisy, would you and Freya please discuss the plan you and your team came up with to best utilize your stealth ships?”
“Sure thing. Joshua, you’re listening, right?” Daisy asked.
“Of course,” he replied.
The revelation that Joshua had not only been saved from NORAD––courtesy of some very clever and quick thinking by Freya––but was also now in a small stealth ship of his own, and one capable of latching on to and commandeering enemy craft, had been a boon to the fleet’s morale.
That he and Freya had flown off on their own for a long talk and had patched things up between them had further solidified the fleet’s hopes for success.
“How about you, Marty?” Arlo asked.
“Yep, I’m here.”
“Great. Everyone is accounted for on Team Stealth,” Daisy said, pulling up a long-range scan of the Ra’az system on the display screen. “Okay, so we have a pretty decent survey of the outer regions of the Ra’az solar system. You can see that it’s just the two innermost planets that are surrounded by the asteroid field.”
“And you say they destroyed adjacent planets to create it?” Aarvin asked, everyone’s translator earpieces conveying what he had said.
“Yes. Arlo? You and Marty have been going over this more than I have.”
“Uh, yeah, so here’s the thing,” the teen began. “The Ra’az are basically like bloodsucking leeches of a species. I mean, they’re a hive species, which leeches totally aren’t, but you get the idea. Anyway, they just use up a planet for whatever resources they can grab, then leave an empty husk.”
“So why the asteroid field?” Captain Harkaway asked.
“Because those planets were closest to their hive and the first ones they invaded,” Arlo replied.
“Think of it like a serial killer, Captain. The first victims tend to be close to home before they find their legs and spread out,” Marty added.
“Morbid analogy, but I get it,” Harkaway said.
“So when the planets were harvested, the Ra’az way back then didn’t know to limit their activities, and in so doing they caused a catastrophic collapse of the planets themselves.”
“Why didn’t this destroy the Ra’az world as well? Wouldn’t it have thrown them out of their normal orbit around the sun?” Celeste asked.
“Funny you should say that,” the boy replied. “Because it actually did. But while their world had been farther from the sun originally––which was probably what necessitated their evolution into a subterranean hive society––the loss of those planets and subsequent formation of the asteroid sphere around their world and the adjacent one caused a gravitational shift.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning with a different mass, they were pulled slightly closer to the sun. Not a catastrophic distance, but enough to warm their planet sufficiently to allow for full-scale surface expansion of their hives.”
“So what you’re saying is they accidentally accelerated their own evolution?” Harkaway asked.
“It seems that way.”
Joshua, silent until that point, felt it was time to interject and speed things along. “So, that covers why they evolved into what they are, and that’s what we’re dealing with in the present,” he said. “Thanks for the history lesson, Arlo.”
“My pleasure.”
“Now, I’ve been talking with Freya and Marty, and as the only stealth vessels in the entire fleet, we three will play a pretty specialized role in the early stages. We need to get a detailed survey of the area inside the asteroid field, as well as the planet, of course, which we will accomplish by a leapfrogged series of warps, gathering intel on the gaps in the asteroid field the Ra’az apparently utilize as access points for their craft.”
“Meaning the asteroid field itself acts as sort of an outer layer of a hive,” Freya added.
“Exactly. Thanks, hon.”
“My pleasure.”
“Did he just call her hon?” Sarah wondered.
Oh man, what has she been up to?
“Good thing you left your neuro-band in your pocket or this could be awkward.”
Seriously.
“Daisy? Did you have something to say?” Celeste asked, noting the curious expression on Daisy’s face.
“What? Oh, no. Just thinking about tactics, is all,” she covered. “There was just one thing that’s going to be an unknown v
ariable. We had been planning on detonating a warp orb on the surface of their planet. Joshua thought it could potentially ignite their entire atmosphere. Only there was a problem.”
“Ah, yes, the warp malfunctions Freya and Marty experienced recently,” Joshua said. “I fear we may have to resort to more conventional means of attack until we have a clear path to warp right to the edge of the Ra’az atmosphere.”
“But the orbs––” Daisy said.
“Will have to wait until the right moment. Given the nature of this particular mission, and the number of craft too damaged to join us, I think it would be wise for both of you to carry an additional warp drive on board as an emergency backup should your primary systems fail. I hypothesize that too many warps likely put an excessive strain on the systems, but since you haven’t been overtaxing them lately, you should be fine. Still, tactically, it makes sense to go ahead and carry them along.”
“That’s what we did when we got stuck chasing the Ra’az,” Daisy agreed, not noting that they had pulled a Bill and Ted to save themselves. Something Daisy realized she still needed to do, and soon.
Note to self. We need to get that orb from Chu’s lab and drop it for ourselves. It’s too crucial to put off.
“You’re right,” Sarah replied. “Fortunately, with time travel, we have a little wiggle room.”
“Once we have the asteroid field mapped out more fully, and have determined the Ra’az defenses within, I have devised a plan to use the asteroids to our advantage,” Joshua said.
“How can we do that?”
“Easy. We are going to take a page out of your playbook from your attack on the communications facilities on Earth. It was quite inspired, I must say, using debris as cover for your craft. Only now, we’ll use the asteroids surrounding their planet instead. Since they block all scans in either direction, we’ll warp our entire fleet to just outside the innermost part of the field, following the signals the stealth ships will give, acting as a beacon to the open accessways. Once there, each ship will gather asteroids large enough to help shield them as they attack.”
“While we’re at it, why not have the ships that have space in their holds take some more with them that way? They can mount transponders on some of them, and maybe even explosive charges. Anything to throw at the Ra’az to confuse them as to our true numbers and trajectories,” Harkaway suggested.
“Good idea, Captain,” Joshua said. “But keep in mind, we’ll need to arrive fully ready and in attack mode, just in case Murphy pays a visit. For that reason, I think modifying your suggestion might give us an additional fourteen-point-six percent increase in our odds of achieving a surprise attack.”
“How do you propose doing that?”
“We collect debris from the damaged ships and carry that as diversionary chaff, Captain,” he replied. “It’s already inorganic, and to long-range scans, it should show as a large group of small ships.”
“I have a suggestion,” Daisy said. “All of this sounds great, but why don’t we send in another distraction from the other direction?”
“Our numbers are somewhat limited, Daisy,” Joshua noted.
“Which is why we send one solitary, big, distraction,” she replied.
“What did you have in mind?” he asked, intrigued.
Daisy scrolled the image on the screen to a distant view.
“See this right here?” she said, pointing to a small cluster of debris orbiting within the solar system, but far from the Ra’az planet.
“A small asteroid field. Yes, I see it,” Joshua replied.
Daisy zoomed in on it and pointed to the enormous chunk of rock dwarfing all the others in the cluster.
“This,” she said. “If we line this up and give it a hard push, this asteroid should travel all the way to the asteroid field around their world and push right through it. Or at least through most of it. The thing is, it’ll be one hell of a distraction, and since it’s entirely naturally occurring, they won’t suspect an attack while they launch ships to shift it to a course away from their planet.”
Celeste couldn’t help but smile.
“You want to throw a big rock at them?” she said with a chuckle.
“Well, it worked for David,” Daisy said. “And the Ra’az are a lot smaller than Goliath.”
“Hmm. I like it,” Joshua said after a moment’s consideration. “Clever, Daisy, though I shouldn’t be surprised by your unusual tactical prowess.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” Daisy shot back.
“So how do we set that thing in motion?” Arlo asked. “Our ships are too small to push it, but I guess maybe the bigger ones could––”
“Nukes,” Daisy said.
“What?”
“You heard me. We use a couple of nukes to create the initial force to send it on its way. After that, all we have to do is set off a couple of smaller blasts nearby to nudge it onto the course we want.”
“You make it sound so simple,” Captain Harkaway said.
“If you consider a solar system-sized game of pool using asteroids instead of balls simple, then sure, why not,” Daisy said with a chuckle. “Thing is, it could actually work, and we already have quite a few missiles with nuclear payloads at our disposal, courtesy of Joshua, so why not try?”
“I’m with Daisy on this one,” Celeste said, looking at her husband for support. “But I won’t give the order unless we’re all on board. Given the number of ships we’ve already lost, and the reduced number of functioning warp drives at our disposal, I think it’s important we are one hundred percent in agreement before we begin.”
“You can count me in,” Arlo said. “Marty, too, obviously.”
“Thanks for speaking for me,” Marty griped.
“Oh, come on, you know you’re in.”
“Obviously.”
Arlo rolled his eyes.
“I can have several of our Chithiid vessels on hand to provide muscle to help adjust the asteroid’s course, if need be,” Maarl said. “We do not possess the firepower of the other ships, but the craft possess powerful drive systems.”
“Great idea,” Daisy said, while the translator caught everyone else up to speed.
In short order, all of the fleet’s commanders agreed on the mission, then spread back out to their ships.
“This is nuts, Daze,” Sarah said when they were clear of the meeting room.
“Which is why it might actually work.”
“Okay, so say the diversion pulls Ra’az ships to the other end of their asteroid field. We still have to thread the needle with an entire fleet of ships. Most of which are going to have quite a time of it navigating their way through.”
“Which is why we’re going to have Freya and the boys mapping it real time while they’re pushing through. It’s a sped-up leapfrog system that should get us to them before they can mount a full-strength defense.”
“Seems like a solid plan, so far as I can tell,” Sarah said.
“And if it doesn’t work? If they catch on while we’re still in the asteroids?” her flesh-and-blood counterpart asked.
Daisy thought a moment. There really wasn’t an alternative.
“Well, if that happens, Sis, we’ll just have to blast our way through.”
“I hope you’re right,” Sarah said. “I’d rather not die again.”
“Please don’t,” Sarah jokingly urged.
Daisy laughed. “Oh, now that you two have got something to live for you want to be careful?”
“I wouldn’t say it like we’ve got something to live for. That sounds desperate.”
“Fine. Now that you’re finally getting some, you want to make sure to come back in one piece to keep on keepin’ on.”
Sarah groaned.
“You’re ridiculous. You know that?”
“Hey,” Daisy softened. “For real, I’m just glad you two finally got together. And Other You feels the same way.”
“Amen, my sister.”
“Yeah. You kn
ow, if not for her, we might not have,” she admitted. “Thanks, Sarah.”
“My pleasure.”
“Which reminds me, Daisy. We wanted to do another memory update, if you don’t mind.”
“Worried about missing out on all the fun we had while you were down frolicking on the surface, eh?”
“Ha. Nope, but it lets us stay on the same page. It’s hard to describe, Daze, but it really feels like we’re one person in two places now. It’s kind of amazing.”
“And you’ve got new stuff for me,” Sarah said. “I hope it’s juicy.”
Sarah laughed. “You’ll just have to wait and see, Other Me.”
“Well, since you two already merged just a few days ago, this should take no time at all,” Daisy said. “Just a few days of memories? That’s cake. Come on, let’s steal that orb from Chu’s lab, then get aboard Freya and get you two hooked up while there’s still some downtime.”
“Thanks, Sis.”
“Yeah, thanks, Daze.”
“For you? Anything.”
Chapter Thirty
The fleet was in high-alert mode, and all ships were transferring munitions and supplies from the craft too damaged to partake in the attack to those bound for the Ra’az solar system.
Spare warp cores were pulled from the Chithiid ships that would now be staying at their homeworld. The added bonus of having those at their disposal gave the fleet an extra boost of confidence, despite the fact that it came at the cost of loss of some of their less-powerful craft for the assault.
On the ground, Chithiid rebels had taken control of nearly all surface resources and driven the Ra’az and their loyalists into hiding, much as they’d done on Earth. They soon found that the lack of ships with which to flee into the sheltering expanse of deep space meant they would be hard-pressed avoiding the scrutiny of the several billion Chithiid eyes scouring the planet looking for them.
Soon, Taangaar would be a planet reborn, and the invaders nothing more than bone and dust.
The orbiting ships went about their routines, and even mounted salvaged weapons the damaged craft had no use for, supplementing their already sizable offensive capabilities even further.