by Saxon Andrew
“Sir, the probes I left just outside Andromeda are detecting a large number of alien warships gathering.”
“How did the probes detect them?”
“They’re blocking the light from stars behind them Sir. I’m sure there’s a lot more there than we’ve detected. It appears they’re launching their attack early.”
“Move your ships closer to Andromeda and have the telepaths warn us when they start leaving.”
“Yes Sir.”
“I also want you to send the telepath named Funny Man to my office in Fleet Operations immediately.”
“Yes Sir. May I tell him why he’s being reassigned?”
“No, you may not. Give him his orders and have him get here as quickly as possible. We’ll assign his ship’s commander a new weapons officer when they arrive.”
“Yes Sir.” Grady disappeared from Charlie’s display and he contacted Funny Man’s ship, “Captain Reynolds, you are to take your ship at maximum speed to New Britannia. Lt. Funny Man will immediately report to Admiral Henricks office and you will be assigned a new weapons officer.”
“Sir, do you know what this is about?” Funny Man asked.
“No, I do not. Follow your orders and get moving!”
Charlie watched the ship leave at high speed back toward the Milky Way and sighed. He was not being given the respect he deserved by Admiral Henricks. He suspected he was promoted to get him as far away as possible from Sweets and this last exchange proved it. He blew out a breath and wondered if she still remembered him.
• • •
“What do you think this is about?”
Funny Man shrugged, “Admiral Henricks doesn’t like me very much.”
Dan stared at Funny Man, then asked, “Why is that?”
“It’s a long story, Dan. Whatever the reason, I don’t think it’s a good one as far as I’m concerned.”
“Admiral Henricks is an honorable man; you’ll be fine.”
“I sincerely hope you’re right.” Funny Man sighed; he knew it couldn’t be anything good.
• • •
Funny Man arrived on New Britannia and saw the spaceport was deserted except for a couple of warships. He was led to the elevators by a guard and told to take a seat outside Admiral Henrick’s office. He sat down and after thirty minutes, two other officers exited the elevator and were ordered to take a seat with him. Funny Man looked at them and smiled, “I’m called Funny Man; do you know why you’re here?”
The young woman smiled, “I’m Melanie and no, I have no idea.”
Funny Man turned to the young man and he shook his head, “My name is Scott and I don’t know either. We’ve been waiting here for more than a month and this is the first time we’ve been given any orders.”
“It appears the planet is deserted,” Funny Man commented.
“The Sargent that brought us up here told us that Admiral Henricks and the other personnel here will be leaving by tomorrow.”
“If they’re leaving, why did he order me to report here?”
Scott shrugged, “I honestly don’t know.”
The office door suddenly opened, and they saw Admiral Henricks, “Come inside and take a seat.” They walked in the office and saw three chairs in front of the Admiral’s desk. They sat down and Grady leaned forward, “The three of you have been selected to carry out a mission that is critical to the survival of humanity. New Britannia is going to be attacked by the Stealth Civilization and we need the three of you to act when that happens.” Grady turned to Funny Man, “You are the only one that has flown one of Earth’s Scouts…”
“Sir, Charlotte has also flown that scout,” Funny Man interrupted.
Grady’s eyes narrowed at the interruption, but he continued, “Charlotte is involved in completing the exodus of New Britannia and that leaves you as the only available pilot that knows how to operate an Earth Scout!”
Funny Man nodded, “Yes Sir!”
“There are three Earth Scouts outside the building that are provisioned for six months. Those scouts cannot be detected by the enemy’s warships. Lt. Funny Man, you are promoted to Captain and you will command this mission. You will train the other two pilots on operating the scout and set up a plan to carry out your mission.”
“Sir, what is our mission?” Melanie asked.
“We have left large nuclear weapons in every city and military facility on New Britannia. When the alien’s missile bombardment of the planet starts, the three of you will broadcast a frequency to the planet setting off those nuclear devices. Three pilots are needed equally spaced around the planet in orbit to set them all off simultaneously.”
The three pilots stared at Grady and Funny Man decided, ‘what the hell’ and said, “Sir, if what you’re telling us is accurate, then New Britannia will probably be destroyed. There won’t be any coming back to it in the future.”
“That’s exactly what we intend to happen Captain.”
“But why?” Scott asked.
“The Stealth Civilization has learned that it’s New Britannia’s atmosphere that allows us to build the super-hardened, flexible hulls used on our warships. They intend to take possession of the planet and use it to build those hulls for their warships; we can’t allow that to happen; the planet must be destroyed.” Grady paused and shook his head, “If there was a way to stop the coming missile attack, this would never be considered…but…there’s no way to stop it. We can’t allow the planet to fall into their possession. Your mission is critical to humanity’s survival. We must make it appear that the planet and its population was destroyed by their nuclear missiles. That’s why you must wait until the bombardments starts before setting off the devices on the planet’s surface.”
“Sir, why were we selected to do this?” Funny Man asked.
“You were chosen for the obvious reason; you know how to operate an Earth Scout. Melanie and Scott volunteered to take on a dangerous mission.”
Funny Man’s head went back, and he turned to Scott and Melanie. Melanie lifted a shoulder, “We were told that volunteers were needed to carry out an extremely dangerous mission to protect mankind. I felt I had to volunteer.”
“Why?”
Melanie hesitated and replied, “I guess I want to make sure my sister and her twins live out their lives. I felt I had to do it.” Funny Man turned to Scott and he nodded.
“You will go to your ships and start learning how to fly them immediately. I’ve received a report that large numbers of Stealth Warships are gathering at the edge of Andromeda. All the remaining people on New Britannia will be evacuated by tomorrow morning. We will be outside the range of your communicators so I’m depending on you to make this happen! Any questions?”
“What is the frequency to set off the nuclear devices Sir?” Funny Man asked.
“It’s been programmed into your communication system Captain. The location of the planet we’ve moved to is also in your navigation system. Take your ships there after you complete your mission and report immediately to me.” Grady paused and said, “Report to your scouts immediately.” They stood up, saluted, and left Grady’s office. Grady shook his head; Funny Man was more concerned about his own survival than the mission. The jerk even suggested Charlotte to take his place. But the other two will do what was necessary once they learned how to fly the scouts. He wouldn’t put it past Funny Man to run away.
• • •
Grady was right. Funny Man did not intend to die in this stupid mission. But first, teach them how to operate the scouts. Then he’d choose a good place to make his exit.
• • •
They exited the building and the guard that took them to Admiral Henricks’ office led them to their scouts. Scott looked at Funny Man and asked, “What’s bothering you?”
Funny Man flinched slightly, “I’m just wondering why I’m the only telepath chosen for this mission.”
Melanie immediately said, “Every telepath has been leading the colony ships to our new home for almost nine
months. Gracie told me today she was near exhaustion. She’s leaving tomorrow leading the last ships to Britannia.”
“Britannia?” Funny Man asked.
“That’s the name of the planet we’re colonizing. It was the home world of the Henricks before it was attacked and destroyed by the Core Aliens. I suspect you’d be assisting them but are the only one that can teach us how to fly our scouts.”
Funny Man forced a smiled, “I guess that makes sense. Come to my ship with me and I’ll show you how to operate the control panel. We can practice flying my ship until you get the hang of it and start flying your own.”
“Sounds good,” Scott replied.
• • •
It only took four days for Melanie and Scott to learn how to fly the scouts. If they were telepaths, Funny Man would have just transferred the information in a few minutes, but they weren’t. He fed them how the ship’s piloting systems operated quickly enough but there was the issue of all the other systems they needed to learn. They were pilots in New Britannia’s fleets and their learning curve was steep. At that point, the three ships moved into orbit and began making runs away and toward the planet. Funny Man assigned them a coordinate above New Britannia and he took the third location. The ships were equally spaced around the planet and Funny Man told them, “If what the Admiral said is true about the Stealth Civilization’s warships gathering at the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy leaving for here, they should be arriving here within the next ten days. We’ll move away from our assigned coordinates and move in once the missiles start hitting the planet.” The three ships moved away from New Britannia and settled in to wait on what was coming.
• • •
Several days later, Funny Man heard Melanie think, “Can you hear me?”
“As long as you’re not wearing your combat helmet, I can.”
“Gracie told me before she left that you are the first telepath that came out of hiding to help us.”
“Well, I was curious about what was going on.”
“I don’t know if anyone has ever thanked you for coming out of hiding but I know without the telepaths assisting us, we’d all probably be dead. I want to thank you for stepping forward. My family has a chance to survive because of you and your fellow telepaths.”
Funny Man didn’t respond and knew she was going to be terribly disappointed when he fled from New Britannia. He said instead, “Tell me about your family.”
Melanie began telling him about the love they shared and how her sister’s twins brought so much joy to them, “She named the girl after me.”
“Oh, they’re not identical?”
“No, they’re fraternal but they look so much alike. I miss them terribly.”
Funny Man listened to her and saw how much her life was filled with love. He had left his parents and never went back. He had lived alone and survived alone. He saw her inner thoughts and realized she really didn’t have a choice but to volunteer for this mission. Finally, he told her he needed to get some sleep and ended the contact. He looked into Scott’s mind and saw he was a twin. His reasons were like Melanie’s along with loving his mission of defending humanity. Both of them were…good people. He closed his eyes and fought to find sleep.
• • •
Charlie had paced the Stealth Fleets toward the Milky Way and he contacted Admiral Henricks when he was in communication range, “Sir, the vast majority of the warships leaving Andromeda to launch the missile barrage are using the old thruster system on their ships. We can detect them from behind. We should be able to attack them and take them out.”
“Stand by!” Grady ordered and immediately contacted RJ on his flagship with the fleet above Britannia, “Admiral Grinstead has just reported that the Stealth Aliens are using their old model warships that use thrusters. We can detect those ships, RJ.”
“The scouts out at the black hole have also reported that the two civilizations are launching their fleets and none of them have gravity drives. It appears the Stealth Civilization hasn’t shared that technology with them.”
“Should we call in the warships and attack them?”
RJ paused for a long moment and then asked, “Grady, what happens if they learn that New Melbourne and New Britannia’s populations have been moved? If we attack them, I suspect the gravity drive warships of the Stealth Civilization in that attack fleet will go to those two planets to launch from close range. If they see New Britannia is no longer occupied, they will hold off on their missile attack and they’ll move their fleets there to start construction on the hardened hulls. They’re currently planning to launch from long range to avoid our fleets and won’t learn the populations have been moved before they sweep in behind the missile barrages. We can’t run the risk of them getting possession of New Britannia. I hate it, but we can’t attack them now; we’re just not ready to take them on.”
Grady sighed, “You’re right. We need time to install the stealth field scanners on our current ships and build enough of the new warships to take them on.”
“The number of warships moving out from the galaxy’s core combined with the number of Stealth Ships are too much for us to take on; they outnumber us two to one.”
Grady nodded, “I’ll contact Admiral Grinstead.”
“It’s the right and safest thing to do Grady.”
• • •
Grady looked at Charlie on his monitor and ordered, “Admiral, your mission is complete. Move your ships to Britannia and plan to meet with me in my office.”
“But Sir!! We can stop them!”
“Admiral, I’ve not told you everything in the past and I’m not going into detail now why we must not do that. I want you to think about why we can’t attack and be prepared to discuss it with me when you arrive at Britannia.”
“Yes Sir,” Charlie replied and issued orders for his fleet to change course. He sat back and shook his head. These aliens could be stopped! His brow furrowed and he thought about why Admiral Henricks felt they shouldn’t be stopped. After an hour, he figured out the answer.
• • •
Two large alien fleets gathered outside New Britannia’s Star system and one of them began launching the huge nuclear missiles just inside a light-year out from the planet and from three different directions. They waited for the missiles to arrive at the planet and then began moving forward.
• • •
Funny Man sat back in his chair listening to Melanie and Scott talking over the communicator. Suddenly, Melanie’s voice ended in mid-sentence. Scott began yelling for her to respond and his voice was cut off as well. Funny Man scanned and their thoughts were no longer present. Suddenly, he saw cities on New Britannia going up in nuclear blasts; their scouts must have been hit by the incoming missiles. Funny Man gripped his controls to flee but couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had placed his ship on the star side of New Britannia and the incoming missiles were coming in from an angle. He was to blame for their deaths by having them on the sides of the planet exposed to open space; he was only worrying about himself. He saw Melanie’s twins in his mind and his anger grew. His eyes narrowed and he accelerated the scout into New Britannia’s atmosphere. He couldn’t detect the huge missiles, but they were leaving contrails in the atmosphere as they flew in on the planet; he could see them. He pressed the frequency button down and locked it. He flew a course avoiding the incoming contrails and saw brilliant explosions going off on New Britannia’s surface. One of the missiles flew in at an angle to his ship and he barely managed to raise the left wing of his scout as the missile flew through the space it occupied in an instant. He could have fled in that moment, but his anger had him in its grip. He flew around the planet activating the nuclear devices on the planet’s surface. He knew he had to make a complete orbit to insure all of them activated.
He had no idea how he managed to avoid the incoming wave of giant missiles. He didn’t think, he just reacted and moved around New Britannia. Finally, he made it to Scott’s coordinate and then turned the s
hip vertical. He moved slowly into orbit avoiding the incoming contrails and then they disappeared as he left New Britannia’s atmosphere. He set site on New Britannia’s closest moon and accelerated expecting to hit a missile at any moment. He gripped the steering wheel with a death grip and refused to change course; if it was his time to die, so be it. He arrived close to the moon and flipped the scout around and went to full thrusters. He was moving at an incredible speed and the moon’s surface was growing larger by the second. He pushed the thruster handle fully forward and saw the surface rushing at him on the rear monitor. Suddenly, it slowed, and the ship came to a stop six feet above the moon’s surface. He pulled the thruster handle back, lowered the scout’s landing wheels, brought the bow down and allowed it to fall to the small moon’s surface. The ship rocked but then settled to a stop. Funny Man lowered the scout down over its landing wheels and blew out a huge breath. The missiles moving toward New Britannia must have been programmed to miss objects in orbit like moons and asteroids. Once he was close to the moon, the missiles on that course moved over it and beyond it. He was alive.
He started shaking violently from the fear of the previous close calls and finally managed to get it under control. He stared out of the viewport at New Britannia and his tears began flowing. He activated the optical scanner and moved the view in on the stricken planet. All of the nuclear devices left behind were on the planet’s surface and when they detonated, they sent a giant cloud of radioactive ash and debris high into the atmosphere. The planet looked like a black colored marble hanging in space with brilliant flashes appearing when a nuclear missile hit the planet’s surface. Funny Man stared at the planet in shock shaking his head. Then the black planet began turning orange. “Computer, what’s going on?!”
“The planet’s atmosphere has caught fire from the heat of the planet’s surface.”
Funny Man stared at the planet and suddenly the orange glow around the planet exploded outward in a massive shockwave leaving a brilliant red orb behind it. There was no atmosphere to hide the planet and Funny Man saw the entire surface of the planet was molten rock flowing in massive waves across the surface.