Explorations- the Lost

by Raymond L. Weil

  Race nodded. “Arrangements have been made to send some large luxury liners to bring them back though that may have to be delayed.”

  “Why is that?” asked Councilor Metrecs, looking confused. “I would think you would want to get them back here as soon as possible.”

  Race took in a deep breath. He looked over at Admiral Mann and Rear Admiral Cross. He had already told them what he was getting ready to explain to the council. “As all of you know the Eternals have refused to fight a major battle with any of our fleets in recent months. Our fleets are sweeping through their space freeing galaxy after galaxy.”

  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” asked Councilor Roan. “Ship losses have been minimal.”

  “At first we thought it was until Commander Zafron became suspicious our victories were too easy. He set a trap to test that theory by attacking an Eternal galaxy with an inferior force, one the Eternals could have easily destroyed if they wanted.”

  Councilor Jackson stood up a look of concern on his face. “What happened?”

  “The Eternals withdrew after taking only minimal losses.”

  “That makes no sense,” said Councilor Garson. “Why would they do that?”

  “Commander Zafron suspects the Eternals are pulling our forces farther and farther away from Originator space while gathering their ships for a major attack.”

  “An attack?” roared Councilor Taneth who had replaced Grayseth on the council. “Do we know where?”

  Race looked around at the council members. They were paying attention to every word he was saying. “At first we believed they were considering attacking Federation and Alton space. By eliminating both it might hamper our war effort. We also considered they might be looking at attacking several Dyson spheres. We have been making our defensive strategy based on those two assumptions.”

  “They’re the only ones which make sense,” said Councilor Trallis. “The Eternals have already attacked our Shrieels in the past as well as the Federation and Alton space.”

  “That’s what I thought too. I sent Fleet Admiral Strong all of our information about what’s been going on with the Eternals. I thought he might have a different view on what was happening. Unfortunately, I was right. We have been looking at this all wrong. There is only one target the Eternals can attack that will give them back the impetus in this war.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Trallis, looking confused. “What other target could there be?”

  Councilor Jackson suddenly sat down, his face turning pale. “One we never considered.” Jackson looked directly at Race. “It’s the hub, isn’t it? They’re planning on attacking us here.”

  The room became deathly quiet at the shocking statement.

  “You can’t be serious,” said Councilor Castille. “The Eternals don’t know where the hub is.”

  “They do now,” replied Race. “We’ve known for months the Eternals have been searching our galaxies and the space around them for something. We should have been more careful in launching our attacks. Our overconfidence about the hub being impossible to find has led to our downfall. I had all of our Command Stations on the Dyson spheres and other structures check their records for any unexplained hyperspace trace. Sure enough, several weeks ago there was one recorded one point two light years distant. After further analyzing that hyperspace signal, we have deduced it was a stealthed Eternal battlecruiser. They have found the hub.”

  “Our greatest secret,” said Councilor Dreel, his eyes wide with worry. “What are we going to do?”

  “There’s only one thing we can do,” replied Race. “We must prepare for the attack.”

  Councilor Dazon Fells stood up and gazed at his fellow councilors. “The Eternals will not attack unless they expect to be able to win. We may be looking at the largest war fleet they have ever gathered.”

  Councilor Trallis turned his attention to Race. “How soon can we expect this attack to take place?”

  Race shook his head. “That’s unknown. “The Eternals need to gather their fleet and that means pulling fleets from distant galaxies. They also need a means to take out our battlestations and juggernauts. We’ve run some computer estimates and it looks as if we’re talking about six to fourteen weeks.”

  Several council members began speaking at once until Councilor Trallis called the meeting back to order. “Can the hub survive this attack?” It made Trallis nervous as most of the surviving Originator population was centered at the hub.

  Race took in a deep breath. “It should be able to now that we know of the attack.”

  “Should we recall our fleets attacking Eternal space?” asked Councilor Jackson.

  Race shook his head. “No, I don’t believe so. We need to take advantage of this opportunity to take back those galaxies while the resistance is minimal. What we’ll do instead is pull some of the defensive fleets from the other Dyson spheres. If we pull one thousand battlecruisers from each one that will give us an additional two hundred thousand warships to defend the hub with. We currently have nearly two hundred and sixty thousand already here. That does not include the juggernauts, battlestations, and dreadnaughts.”

  “What do we need to do?” asked Councilor Trallis. “If the hub were to be destroyed it would be a disaster. We do much of our research here and our largest space factories and shipyards are located here. We can’t afford to lose those.”

  Race’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t promise we can save everything. This will be an all out attack against us. I will say this; if we can defeat this attack the war against the Eternals will pretty much be over.”

  “What about Fleet Admiral Strong? Why wait bringing him and his people back? Wouldn’t he be useful commanding a fleet in the battle?”

  Race hesitated and then answered. “This is war and there’s no way to predict how a battle will go. If we fail in defending the hub and the Eternals win then we have a fleet admiral who can renew the fight and keep the rest of Originator space, the Federation, and Alton space safe.”

  “What about Commander Zafron?” asked Councilor Trallis.

  “He will be recalled. I want to put the Dominator in a repair bay and update it as much as possible. It will play an essential role in the defense of the hub.”

  Councilor Dreel stood to speak. “We should begin immediately adding to the defenses of all of our manufacturing and research facilities. At the moment they’re are only lightly armed.”

  “What about our shipyards?” asked Councilor Rosen

  “They’re already heavily armed but we’ll look at adding more. Unfortunately, our time may be limited.”

  Councilor Trallis turned toward Race. “I leave our defense in your hands. We will meet twice a week to discuss what’s being done to protect the hub. This is a battle we hoped never to face but it looks as if the war has found us anyway. Whatever you need we’ll do our best to furnish. I suggest Councilor Dreel be in on your planning as he’s responsible for ship construction as well as battlestation construction.”

  “Thank you,” replied Race. “I’ve furnished each of you with a copy of Fleet Admiral Strong’s reports and recommendations on the Creevak. We won’t be doing anything along those lines until this threat from the Eternals has been eliminated.”

  Councilor Jackson leaned forward in his chair letting out a deep breath. “I guess I’d better tell former councilor Barnes it will be a while before he sees his daughter.”

  “That won’t be necessary. I’m going to send him out on one of the luxury liners.”

  The meeting broke up with many of them going to Race’s office to discuss what needed to be done to prepare the hub for a massive attack by the Eternals.

  -

  Race sat down behind his desk as everyone else took their seats. Lyla Kadda was there since she was responsible for building the juggernauts. Councilor Dreel, Councilor Jackson, Councilor Fells, General Wesley, Admiral Mann, Rear Admiral Cross, and Rear Admiral Madelyn Olsen were also in attendance.

  “We ha
ve a big job ahead of us,” Race began. “To begin with we are going to suffer some losses if the attack is as big as we suspect it’s going to be. I’m talking about our manufacturing and research facilities as well as shipyards.” Race reached out on his desk and touched an icon on his computer screen. Instantly a hologram of the Communications and Transport Hub appeared above them. “As you can see we have hundreds of massive structures which need to be protected. We also have to be careful about throwing dark matter missiles around because of the risk of hitting a friendly target. That also applies to the blue energy spheres.”

  Looking up at the hologram, Race used a pointer to highlight different facilities. “Of course the four Dyson spheres must be protected. However, they are also our most heavily defended. If I were the Eternals I would not attack them until toward the end of the battle in order to hold down my fleet losses.”

  “I agree,” said Dazon Fells. “I also believe the Eternals will want to capture as many of our facilities and shipyards as possible. A big part of their attack will be landing their warriors and warrior robots. We could be looking at hundreds of thousands of those maybe more.”

  Race’s eyes widened in surprise. He hadn’t thought of that. “Then we need to increase the number of combat robots and Marines on all our facilities, particularly the shipyards.”

  “We can get many of those from our other Shrieels and bases,” Councilor Dreel informed Race. “By using the vortexes on the Shrieels we can get them here rather quickly.”

  Race turned toward General Wesley. “That will be your responsibility for getting the Marines and combat robots where we need them.”

  “I’ll get right on it,” replied Wesley. “What about evacuations? Do we need to get some of the scientists and AIs off those facilities?”

  “That’s going to interrupt a lot of research,” commented Councilor Dreel. “However, a delay in research is preferable to being killed by an Eternal or one of their killer robots. I would recommend we reduce the staff in most of our research and manufacturing facilities to a minimum. The exceptions will be those dedicated to the war effort. In those we can greatly increase the number of Marines and combat robots. Also, due to the small size of the Originator population, I would suggest we move some of my people to another Shrieel that won’t be a subject of this attack.”

  “What about the one in Shari space?” suggested Madelyn. “That would give us the Shari, the Federation, and the Altons to help protect it plus we already have large fleet units in that galaxy.”

  “I’ll make that suggestion to the council,” said Race. “Now as to our fleet units, how many juggernauts do we have at the hub right now?”

  “One hundred and fourteen,” replied Admiral Olsen.

  “We have three more which will be ready to deploy in another four to six weeks,” added Lyla Kadda.

  Race let out a deep sigh. He wished he had more but many were with the fleets attacking the Eternal galaxies and others had been sent to defend Federation and Alton space. He wasn’t willing to call those back just yet. There was always the chance they were wrong about the hub being the Eternals’ target.

  “What about our fleets?”

  “We have two hundred and sixty-seven thousand battlecruisers and twenty-two thousand dreadnaughts here,” replied Hailey. “Some of those are in repair bays. I’ll order a priority be placed on getting them combat ready.”

  “Battlestations?”

  “Twenty-three of the forty-kilometer stations and one of the one hundred and seventy kilometer battlestations,” replied Councilor Dreel.

  “How many Eternal ships do you think we’ll be facing?” asked Hailey.

  “I don’t know. At a guess I would say over half a million. It could be a lot more. From the way they’re refusing to engage our fleets they must be gathering everything they can to throw at us. This battle is going to be brutal.”

  Hailey stood up and walked around the hologram, studying it. “A lot of our facilities are really spread out. We need to tighten our defensive perimeter. The four Dyson spheres need to be at the center with everything else around them. The research and manufacturing facilities are our weakest points and should be moved closer to the Dyson spheres. The shipyards have heavy weapons and can play an important part in our defense.”

  “Easier said than done,” replied Race. “Each of those Dyson spheres is over two hundred million kilometers across and they can’t be moved easily.”

  Hailey frowned. “Then move all of our facilities in between the Dyson spheres. They have more firepower than all of our battlestations and ships combined.”

  Race took a moment to study the hologram. “All of our facilities have gravity drives, don’t they?”

  “Yes,” replied Lyla. “Keep in mind the Shrieels have stars at their centers and are at minimum two billion kilometers apart. We can also move the Shrieels but only very slowly. It takes a tremendous amount of power to move a star.”

  “We have too large an area to defend,” commented Hailey, folding her arms over her chest. “I just don’t see how we’re going to do this.”

  “What if we move the research and manufacturing facilities in between the four Dyson spheres?” suggested Rear Admiral Cross. “We can put the shipyards around them for added firepower and place the forty-kilometer battlestations as a perimeter defense.”

  “What abut the Accelerator Rings?” asked Race. “We can’t let them fall into the hands of the Eternals.”

  “We take the large ones apart and store them on the Dyson spheres,” suggested Councilor Jackson. “We can move the forty-kilometer Accelerator Rings to the center of where our manufacturing and science facilities will be.”

  Race nodded. “That would leave our fleets and the juggernauts to attack the Eternals with. Does anyone see how we can do anything better?”

  No one answered and Race shut down the hologram. “Let’s talk about exactly what we need to do and how to get it done. Assume we have four weeks before the Eternals’ attack. That should give us some leeway.”

  If this was anywhere else but the hub what they were discussing would be impossible to accomplish. However, here they had millions of Originators who were the most intelligent race in the known universe. Race knew what he considered impossible they merely considered a minor challenge.

  -

  Admiral Hailey Mann stepped back inside the Command Center of her new juggernaut flagship the Golden Knight.

  “Admiral on deck!” shouted the Marine standing at the hatch.

  Everyone instantly stood up and saluted.

  “At ease,” replied Hailey as she made her way over to her command chair and sat down.

  Looking up at the main viewscreen, she could see hundreds of the titanic structures dotting the Communications and Transport Hub. “How do I protect all of that?” she said aloud.”

  On another viewscreen, one of the larger Accelerator Rings powered up and a swirling blue vortex formed. A small fleet of battlecruisers came through. Some of them were damaged and in need of repair. Several looked as if they should have been abandoned.

  Hailey looked over at Commander Sutherland. He had been with her for years and she trusted his advice. “Erick, how do we defend all of this from a massive Eternal attack?”

  Erick raised his eyebrows. “What kind of attack?”

  Hailey then explained what she had just been informed of by Fleet Admiral Tolsen.

  “Think outside the box,” suggested Erick. “Even if we move everything closer together we still have too much space to defend.”

  “You’re right of course. If we try to defend everything, we could possibly lose the battle.”

  “What do we have to keep intact?”

  Hailey thought for a few minutes. “Obviously the four Dyson spheres; if necessary everything else can be rebuilt.”

  “How about this?” said Erick as he activated a hologram depicting the Communications and Transport Hub. “What if we move the four forty-kilometer Accelerator Rings here
as planned? However, we put some of our larger shipyards and key manufacturing and research facilities there as well. The rest of the manufacturing and research facilities can be in an outer shell protected by the forty-kilometer battlestations.”

  Hailey watched as Erick adjusted the hologram to make his suggested changes. “Now, place the one hundred and seventy-kilometer battlestation near the Accelerator Rings as protection. The station has a gravity drive and could protect all of those structures we consider too valuable to lose.”

  Erick made another adjustment, placing the large battlestation between the Accelerator Rings. “That leaves our fleets to attack the Eternals wherever we deem fit.”

  Hailey nodded. “We use our fleets to attack and not to defend. The Eternals will not be expecting that.”

  “It’s always better to go on the attack rather than on the defensive,” replied Erick.

  Hailey knew Erick was right. She hated the idea of fighting a defensive battle. “I want to meet with all admirals here at the hub in the morning. We can have breakfast together and then discuss the coming attack in briefing room one. Make plans for lunch as well as we’re probably going to be there for quite some time.”

  -

  Race was in his old flagship, the dreadnaught Warhawk. It had been a long time since he had set foot on his former ship. It was currently docked in one of the large shipyards undergoing modifications. The only people on board were construction workers.

  Sitting down in the command chair Race thought about all the battles he had fought from this ship. Several times he had nearly died. One time he had the original Warhawk blown out from under him when the Hocklyns attacked the Federation.

  For nearly an hour Race sat there thinking about what was ahead. If they defeated the Eternals in this battle the war, for all intents and purposes, would be over. If they lost then any real hope of victory would be gone.