by C J Klinger
Wemish slapped his hand over his chest and said, “It shall be as you ordered, my commander.”
Hydrol returned to his quarters. He had time enough to write his last testimony, not that he expected any of his family to live to inherit his estate after this disaster. In forty thousand years no commander had ever lost this many ships.
Chapter 67
Hylox
The CSF Sparta moved in low orbit above the dark side of Hylox. She had been assigned as a last-ditch barrier to any Khruellian ships that broke through and attacked Hylox. Scattered between her and the Orion boundary were more than eight hundred ADO ships, some in a defensive formation and some ranging as individual patrol ships. Each collection of ships carried hundreds of Com-bots to alert central command and each other as soon as the Khruellian fleet came out of subspace. The plan was simple, wherever the Khruellians showed up, the ADO ships were to converge and attack as soon as they were in range. Command Central hoped this swarming effect would be more effective than fighting them in an orderly formation.
Annika and her crew waited anxiously for the enemy to appear. They had been at battle stations for two hours and nerves were getting frayed. Annika was glad that Adalan was cruising alongside Islandia II. Having someone watching her back, and vice versa, freed her mind of the ever-present burden of wondering who was behind her. The news that Jon and his band of Alphans had ambushed the Khruellians in transit and had inflicted heavy damages on the attacking fleet had brought welcome encouragement. Annika also knew there had been heavy losses among the Alphan fleet and was relieved beyond measure that Jon’s ship had not been one of them, but she also knew he would not stop there; he would be in hot pursuit.
The green light of an incoming message brought her attention back to her own situation. She opened the message on her com-screen and said, “Listen up, they're here.”
Both the tactical screen and the central holograph changed as a massive cluster of red dots appeared just outside the orbit of the largest planet in the Hyloxian system, a gas giant. Almost immediately clusters of green dots began to appear around the advancing hoard of Hegemony warships. Within seconds more green dots appeared swarming in and around the advancing red dots. Altogether there were almost two thousand warships engaged in the greatest battle in the history of all the species combined. It was an all-out effort to destroy each other. The victors would determine the fate of billions of sentient beings on more than a million inhabited solar systems.
Annika watched as flares sparkled in the holographic display indicating the death of a ship and her crew. She looked for any indication of Jon’s ship but saw none. She experienced both relief that he was not in the middle of this madhouse battle and concern that his ships were not there to help the ADO tip the scales in their balance. Her ship and twenty others charged with the close in defense of the Hylox population centers could only watch the raging battle, but judging from the speed of the advancing fleet the battle would be at their doorsteps with sixty seconds.
Annika selected her first target, and the long-range pulse cannon fired. She was rewarded with the sight of a mid-sized Khruellian ship staggering from its original path. She could only guess if the ship were mortally wounded. The CSF Sparta took a hit and staggered, then another. The inertia damper saved the crew from being thrown about, and the Hooshag shields protected them from outright destruction, but the combination of two or more hits from pulse cannons would overwhelm their shield. They had been fortunate the hits came seconds apart.
Adalan zipped past The CSF Sparta and took out a fast approaching destroyer with a dissembler missile. Her ship was too small to house a heavy duty pulse cannon or protective shields, but the dissembler missile made her as dangerous as a battleship. The Hyloxian pilots relied on the incredible agility of their small ships to protect them instead of defense shields.
Annika saw that a number of the enemy ships was vectoring in on one of Hylox’s larger cities. Most of the ADO ships were concentrating on the bulk of the Khruellian fleet that was advancing toward the capital city, where Adalan lived. She and Adalan must have made the same decision at the same time; save the second city, because both the Hyloxian ship and The CSF Sparta immediately set their course to intercept the advancing cluster of ships, but as fast as they reacted, they were too late. The brilliant flash of a hydrogen fusion explosion replaced the city were several million inhabitants had lived. Adalan’s little spaceship shot ahead as if propelled by her personal anger. Islandia surged to keep up. As they neared the cluster of retreating Khruellian ships, they began to draw fire. Annika saw Adalan’s ship careen sideways and then recover. A deep dark gash was evident on the near side of the round Hyloxian ship, but apparently not bad enough to keep it out of the fight. Annika’s pulse cannons flashed as they came into range. The CSF Sparta staggered from another hit but held together. She was not as responsive as she had been before, but Annika was able to maneuver her close enough to the retreating ships to let loose every dissembler missile she had in her arsenal.
The CSF Sparta staggered again and began to lose altitude. The ship’s Talo took over and guided them away from the infernal of what had once been a beautiful Hyloxian city. She knew she was out of the fight now and just hoped someone would finish the job she and Adalan had started. As if on cue, a swarm of small silver disc appeared and tore into the remaining Khruellian ships. The dark space above Hylox lit up like a fireworks display, each explosion marking the end of a Hegemony ship and not a few Alphan ships at the same time. Annika turned her attention to saving her ship, if possible.
They entered the atmosphere faster than normal, which raised The Sparta external temperature beyond what was considered safe, but it slowed them down and to give Annika more time to consider her options. It was too late to jump to a safe spot like Newhope where they could be recovered quickly. They were in the atmosphere, and no one knew what would happen if a ship jumped while in contact with a planet. Speculation ranged from nothing happening to the whole planet being transported to the new location. A quick glance at her situation screen showed Adalan’s ship making the downward plunge with her. Annika felt comforted by the presence of her friend who might well be witness to her demise. She sent a flash message to Adalan, “Tell Jon I love him.”
A message flashed back, “You are not through fighting.”
In spite of the dire situation she and her crew were in, Annika smiled. She and her crew were not through fighting. The CFS Sparta had been designed for space and atmospheric travel. Before the adoption of the Alphan local propulsion system, CSF ships had relied on a gravity well drive which required flight maneuvering like every other airship since the dawn of aviation. The design of new spaceships lacked any flight maneuvering vanes. But not The CSF Sparta; she had been one of the last ships built for the old flight system and had been retrofitted with the new Alphan drive after her launching.
She instructed the engineering officer to deploy the flight vanes. There was no pilot yoke to maneuver the huge, hundred-meter-ship, only commands on her computer. She set the angle of dive she wanted and hoped their high-speed entry wouldn’t tear off the vanes. Gradually, The Sparta angle of entry came up, and she began to lose speed. She had no propulsion power and was essentially a very heavy glider, but the shape that Jonathon McKinnah senior had settled on many years earlier made gliding possible. The flat, arrow-shaped warship was a perfect lifting body and began to respond to Annika’s commands. In her forward view screen, she saw a world of green valleys between saw-toothed mountains. She glided her ships toward a long valley and said, “Sound the collision alarm.”
The vegetation grew closer. From Annika’s previous visits to Hylox, she knew they kept most of their world in the same condition their ancestors had grown up in. That meant tall trees and mature vegetation. She was counting on that to cushion their landing. The CSF Sparta began to shear the tops of the tallest trees, and Annika pulled up the nose to keep them from diving straight into the ground. The roar of the pa
ssage through the trees began to penetrate the hull as the ships slowed dramatically. It continued for what seemed an eternity, and finally, there was silence. They were down on the ground. A roar went up through the ship, and then everyone in the command center began to clap. Annika was shaking as she slumped in her seat.
Her XO said, “Well done, Captain. You certainly earned your wings.”
After checking with her crew and making sure everyone was okay, she ordered the top hatch opened. She and Bryan climbed out to check their situation. As soon as she was on top, Adalan’s ship circled and landed next to them. The Hylox ship’s hatch popped open, and Adalan appeared. She had morphed back to white from her black striped battle colors. With incredible ease, she jumped the distance between the two ships and enveloped Annika in a full body hug.
“I was afraid I was going to lose you, Sister-Friend,” The much taller Hyloxian said.
Annika buried her head in the fur between Adalan’s breast glands and for a brief moment shook with emotions.
After a moment, she pulled back and said, “It is good to see you on the other side, Sister-Friend.”
Adalan held her at arm’s length and said, “Your life mate, my brother-friend-spirit-mate knows that you are safe and sends his loves.”
A vast sense of relief spread over her. Jon was safe, but her sense of wellbeing evaporated when she remembered they had failed to prevent one of Hylox’s largest cities from being destroyed.
“Your city, your people,” she said in an emotional voice.
Adalan waved her hand dismissively. “It was only a city. The people evacuated into our green world several days ago. We will rebuild.”
Annika surveyed the green world around her. Coming from Earth, the impact of so much raw forest overwhelmed her senses. She said, “I want Jon and me to come back here when this war is over.” She realized she had said ‘when’ and not ‘if’ this war was over. She looked at Adalan and said, “I believe we can win.”
The catlike alien smiled revealing her carnivore ancestry and said, “I know we can Sister-Friend.”
Chapter 68
Alpha Tau Alpha
Jonathon stood at attention and waited while Ruuhr and the other members of his entourage finished paying homage to the fallen Alphan fighters from the battle of Hylox. In total, the Alphans had lost more than a thousand crew members, more than the combined loss of all the other ADO allies. The small, agile silver discs, manned by inexperienced crews had thrown themselves at a far superior enemy with courage and a willingness to sacrifice their lives to saves the world of one of their allies. Those who knew the history of the peaceful Alphans knew the magnitude of their sacrifice.
Ruuhr finished his remarks to the vast crowd of citizens silently gathered on the grassy knoll next to the memorial monolith, the first of its kind honoring Alphans killed in battle. He seemed to stand taller than before. All of the Alphans did, Jon noted as if they had been exonerated by the sacrifice of these young fighters. Their people, their society were forever changed. Jon fervently hoped they would never have to build another monument.
He reached out and touched Annika’s hand. It was not a proper military protocol, but he just wanted to reassure himself that she was really there and not some statistic on an after battle report. She responded in kind and smiled. On the other side of her, Admirals Dexter and Chen-Warren took note of the interchange between two of their junior officers and approved of their show of emotions.
In a final act of closure, Admiral Chen-Warren awarded the Order of Space medal to Commander Auuga Knel for exceptional bravery and courage under fire. He promptly hung it on the monument where he said it belonged.
After a quiet reception with the Alphan Assembly, the four of them took their leave and boarded Admiral Chen-Warren’s personal command ship for the journey to Newhope. They had previously traveled to Hooshag, Hylox, and Brotoon for similar ceremonies. The price of victory had been high. It would have been far higher in Hylox had the population not heeded their leader's warnings about leaving the cities before the attack started. Even with a mass evacuation, they had lost more than a hundred thousand of their citizens, mostly those who hadn’t obeyed the order to evacuate.
Admirals Dexter and Chen-Warren were anxious to get back to their offices to plan the next step in stopping the Hegemony’s relentless spread. The battle of Hylox had been a devastating defeat for the Khruellians; no one questioned that, but no one believed that the loss of fifteen hundred of their ships was enough to deter them from continuing to fulfill their ‘Legend.’ There would be many more battle ahead and probably many more ceremonies like the ones they had just attended.
Once back on the field at Newhope, they separated with little conversation; the two commanding officers boarded their personnel carrier while Jon and Annika decided to walk over to the officers club for dinner and a drink. It was a somber place compared to previous visits. Many of the regulars were now cosmic dust circling the Hylox system and that absence cast a pall on the room. Jon asked Talor to sit with them instead of standing guard at his back. The android complied without comment. He looked at Jon and said, “After fifty years of living with humans I am beginning to understand your sense of loss.”
His remark was so unexpected that Jon and Annika just stared at him not knowing what to say. In the fifty years Talor had spoken of, the McKinnahs, Jon included had come to consider the Ares, almost a human in android form. That fact that he was an alien, perhaps the most alien of any members of the ADO had faded with time. In their mind, he was as human as they were.
Annika, who had known Talor for less than two years, was not so encumbered by preconceived conceptions of who the Ares was; to her, he was more alien than human, but one who had become a close friend and confidante. She looked at the Android and asked, “What do you feel when we experience loss, Talor?”
“Concern for your wellbeing, because you lose functionality when you experience a loss,” Talor said candidly.
Jon sat back in his chair and looked at the Ares in Talor form. The alien had been an important part of his life from birth, had helped shape him as a young man and prepare him to meet other alien life forms without prejudice. It was one of the reasons he had been able to lead the Alphans into battle. He asked Talor “Is that what you feel, ‘concern for our functionality’?”
The Ares was more candid about his inner workings than he had been since Jonathon McKinnah Senior had discovered the little silver globe on Islandia many years ago. Perhaps he felt it was time to educate the latest generation of McKinnahs on the reality of what he actually was, an alien artifact, not an alien sentient. His sentient identity was stored on the Ankh starship waiting to be reunited with him when Jonathon senior and Marcia joined the Ankh.
Talor knew that Jon was surprised by his characterization of the concern he felt. “Jon, do not think that I am not concerned for you and your wellbeing because I do not feel the human emotion of loss the way you do.” The Ares paused uncharacteristically before speaking again. “I know from Talo’s visit with your grandfather and grandmother to the Ankh that I am a descendant of a sentient species, and that the survivors of my species willingly gave up the sentient part of their mind to become Ares for the Ankh. However strange and impersonal that may seem to you, it allows me to make lightning-fast decisions on your behalf without being encumbered by the emotions that conflict humans’ decisions.”
Jon was in a whirl trying to wrap his mind around what Talor was saying, but Annika accepted his explanation at face value and was excited to learn more about the Ares.
She asked him, “Do you think you will ever reconnect with your sentient self like Talo plans to do when Granddad and Grandma McKinnah join the Ankh?”
Talor turned away from watching Jon’s expression and looked at her, the newest McKinnah. He said, “I weigh the pros and cons constantly, Annika. The part of me that is the central Talo will, of course, be united with our sentient former self, but the unique part that makes up ‘Tal
or’ will never take that step as long as you and Jon are alive.”
Annika put her hand on Talor’s arm. The human emotion Talor referred to was evident in her voice when she said, “Thank you for that, Talor. We love you and need you.”
Jon had come to some kind of conclusion, because he joined in with Annika and said, “I don’t understand everything you said, Talor. All I know is you’re the friend who taught me how to kick a soccer ball and has been bailing my butt out of trouble ever since. That’s all I need to know.”
The three of them fell silent until Annika said, “Works for me.” That seemed to settle the issue.
Jon next spoke as a Vice-Admiral in the CSF, “What do you think is next for us, Talor?”
Talor didn’t hesitate. His statement about being able to make lightning-fast decisions without human emotions was evident when he said, “Make peace with the Khruellians is what you should do. Statistically, the ADO cannot win a long-term war with the Hegemony.”
“But they don’t negotiate with anybody,” Jon said.
Talor said, “Perhaps you should do what Talo suggested, talk to Cleric General Bradley-Kinsley. The Vajrashilans know how to negotiate with enemies.”
The impact of Talo’s words struck Jon. On Vajrashila, he and Annika had been subjected to the relentless assault on their senses urging them to give up, to surrender. But with the help of the Vajrashila tree, generations of Vajrashilians had learned how to deal with the pressure and use it to their advantage.
“Oh my God,” Jon said putting his napkin down. “Can it be that simple?”
Talor passed on a wisdom Jon would long remember. “At the core of every complex problem is a simple solution. It is the fog of emotions that keeps sentients from seeing it, or accepting the cost associated with it.”