by Saxon Andrew
“Yes, Sir.”
Duncan stepped back, and Tal shouted, “Atteenn-shun!!” The attendees jumped to their feet and, after Duncan left the room, Tal shouted, “AT EASE!! Take a seat.” Tal looked at the three-admirals and said, “I’m sorry but you are going to start training on your new command consoles in five-days. I need Jan to be available to train the new scanner officers and I need Rachael and Jee to train the new weapon officers.” Tal turned to Ka, “Were you involved in developing the new missile systems?”
“I was.”
“I need you there to train our new missile operators.” Ka nodded, and Tal turned back to the others, “I don’t like being restricted in taking part in what happens, but I can accept it. What will make it easier is if you do a great job of preparing your new crews. Congratulations on your new promotions and take this time to really enjoy yourselves during this break. You’re dismissed.”
The attendees stood up and began celebrating. Ka stood up beside Tal and shook her head, “They don’t know what they’re in for.”
Tal looked at her, “Do you?”
“I have some history on the Brotherhood and an analysis of the warship that killed the Colony Warship. You’ll find it interesting.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Come with me to the lab and we’ll go over it.” Tal nodded, and they left the conference room.
• • •
Jee and Jan watched them walk out and Jan turned to Jee, “They appear to be ok; Tal isn’t nearly as uptight as he normally is around Mom.”
“I agree. But I’m concerned about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“How do you think Mom is going to like taking orders from Tal?” Jan’s eyebrows went up. “You know she doesn’t take orders very well from anyone, much less Tal,” Jee added.
Jan glanced at the back of the room and saw Tal and Ka exit, “I have to believe she’s come to terms with that Jee.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because Admiral Montana gave her an out and she didn’t take it. Mom isn’t dumb, and she knows she’ll have to follow his orders. If things go south, they can agree to transfer Mom to one of our ships.”
“And you think she’ll take our orders any better than his?” Jee asked.
Jan stared at him for a very long moment as she thought about his question, and then said, “Let us pray they get along.”
“Amen to that!” Jee replied with a hardy laugh.
Chapter Three
Tal and Ka went directly to the lab from the conference room. Ka sat down at her desk, and as she entered her password she began to explain what she had learned about this new adversary. “The Brotherhood’s religion evolved from a combination of several religions in the middle east. They believed that they were the creator’s chosen people and as such, they believed they were perfect and without sin. Anyone not a part of their religion, was considered a product of evil and had no standing or value in their eyes. The original founder Denk Solar believed that the Brotherhood should remain separate from others and not intermingle with non-believers. He did not believe that the members should deliberately harm other people but should use whatever force was necessary to keep their distance from outsiders.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Tal replied.
“It wasn’t, initially, although there were some missionaries that were killed because they refused to stay away from their believers.” Ka responded. “However, Solar eventually died, and his replacement took the religion in a new direction. He took the stance that the faithful were created to purify all creation of evil, leaving only the pure to inhabit Earth. The faithful were trained on how to kill maximum numbers of people and the terrorists they created rivaled some of the best Guild Assassins. They targeted the leaders of nations, cities, and small communities and they were good at it, Tal. That eventually led to a group of Earth’s most powerful nations to put together a combined military force to go and take them out. You heard Duncan say that the Brotherhood was given the choice of dying or collecting all their followers at their main temple to be sent away from Earth on a colony ship.”
“And that colony ship disappeared after it left Earth and didn’t show up at the planet designated for them,” Tall interjected.
“Right. It’s clear they took control of the ship and took it to Andromeda,” Ka added.
“If they still believe that all beings other than their members are evil…”
“They must have become a conquering civilization,” Ka completed Tal’s statement.
Tal nodded his head slowly, “If that’s the case, they started building up a military as soon as they arrived on their new planet.”
“That’s the consensus of the sociologists, Tal. It would have taken some time to settle their new planet and start building a technological civilization. But they arrived in Andromeda close to a thousand years ago. Earth only started using technology again a couple of hundred years ago and look at us now. They’ve been free to build up their forces for more than seven-hundred-years.” Ka paused before adding, “Tal, their number of warships must be staggering.”
“What can you tell me about the warship that attacked the Colony Vessel?” he asked.
“When Duncan met with us, all of the data the Captain sent before he self-destructed his ship wasn’t finished being analyzed. One thing that was discovered when they increased the intensity of the recording was something that must have been said on the colony ship’s wall speaker. When the Brotherhood boarders broke into the landing bay, one of them shouted, ‘THESE COME FROM THE GREAT EVIL!!’”
Tal shook his head, “That means that someone on their warship heard that humans were on the colony warship.”
Ka nodded, “I don’t doubt that their boarders were in direct communication with their warship. That means the Brotherhood now knows that humans from the Milky Way are exploring Andromeda. They are warned, and they will be looking for other ships to arrive.”
“Do you think they suspect the existence of the new colonies?”
“I don’t have an answer to that question, Tal. But this may cause them to start an expanding search in Andromeda for other human warships, which will lead them to finding some of the new colonies.”
“This explains why Duncan insisted on sending more Shas to scout Andromeda.”
“The Brotherhood warships also have quite capable scanning systems, Tal. They found that colony warship before it detected them.”
“Aren’t our scanners better than what the colony is currently using, Ka.”
“Yes. But we still don’t know how good the Brotherhood scanners are.”
“What about their weapons?”
“Tal, they’re extremely accurate. They fired only at the colony ship’s thrusters and disabled the ship without destroying it. The image of the warship we’ve been able to examine shows it heavily armed with numerous blaster emplacements and large ports scattered around its hull. The scientists believe the ports must fire a missile at least twice as large as our own missiles.”
“How does their warship compare to an Alpha?”
Ka sighed, “It’s not as large, but it’s not far off, either; it’s certainly larger than the Sha class. And remember, they must have a huge number of them. We only have forty Alphas in active duty.”
“So, it appears we’re back in catch up mode?” he said with a sigh.
Ka agreed, “I suspect Duncan will want us to attack one of their warships with a new Sha class warship. If the Sha can stand up to them, then we should be able to close the gap faster.”
“What do you know about the new Shas, Ka?”
“They’re leagues ahead of the Epys. But I don’t have all the details; we’ll find out when we start our training.” Tal studied Ka’s computer monitor, and the image of the Brotherhood battleship was imposing. Could the Shas stand up to it? “By the way.” Tal turned to Ka. “Have you come up with a name for our ship? Do you still want to call it Assassin
One?”
“No.”
“What then?” she asked.
“Her name will be Jil.” Ka’s eyes widened, and then she smiled. “Jil deserves to be remembered for what her sacrifice led to,” Tal added.
Ka took a breath and said, “I personally prefer Zak,”
“Ships are generally considered female,” Tal explained.
“I don’t care, I still prefer Zak. He was also sacrificed.”
Tal thought for a moment and then smiled, “She’ll be named Zak’s Jil.”
Ka stared at him for a moment before lowering her eyes, “It’s perfect.”
“Do you remember what she looked like, Ka.”
Ka looked up and suddenly, Jil was sitting beside him. He instantly changed to Zak’s image and they held each other’s hands. “I look back on that time and remember it as one of the happiest times in my life, Tal.”
Tal nodded slowly, as Col. Sato came walking up, “Are you authorized to be here?!” Ka and Tal changed back to their normal bodies and Sato’s head jerked back, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s our fault Colonel,” Tal replied. Sato nodded and walked away. Tal and Ka looked into each other’s eyes and Tal said, “It was for me as well…Jil.”
• • •
Five days later, Tal and Ka were sitting on the simulated bridge of their new Sha Warship in the giant training center. Tal looked around and whistled, “Duncan wasn’t lying about this ship being substantially larger than the Epy Class. This bridge is huge by comparison!” He walked to a raised chair that was directly behind the front control panels, sat down, and saw a control panel that was curved around the chair. The console had numerous monitors with numerous controls under each of them. “Now this looks confusing,” he snarked.
Ka sat down at the weapons console and turned around to Tal, “This console is nothing like the one I designed for this class of warship! Someone changed it!”
“That’s because it has been purposely built for each of you.” Both of them turned around to see a young…man…boy…standing behind Tal’s chair.
Tal’s head tilted, as he asked, “And you are?”
“My name is Indie Wolfe. I’m assigned to train you on how to use your new consoles.” Tal and Ka were silent, and the young man smiled, “I’m older than I look.”
“Just how old are you?” Tal asked.
“I just turned twenty.” The young man saw their expressions and shrugged, “I know, I know, I look like I’m sixteen.”
“I was thinking more like thirteen,” Ka replied.
“Ouch! Well, let’s just keep that to ourselves, shall we?” Indie responded.
“You’re from the colonies, aren’t you?” Tal asked.
“I am. I came in the first wave of scientists that arrived about a year ago.”
“You are a scientist!?” Ka asked forcefully.
“Yes, Miss Ka, I am.”
Ka’s eyes narrowed, “What is your discipline?”
“I have advanced degrees in physics, electronics, computer sciences, and high-energy fields.” Indie answered.
And you’re only twenty?!” Tal questioned.
Indie shrugged, “I was somewhat of a child prodigy, Admiral. However, I was assigned to work on your vessel and I’ve designed your systems to work with your enhanced genetics.”
“What does that mean?” Ka snapped.
“It’s my understanding that your reaction times and reflexes have been greatly enhanced over normal humans,” Indie answered. “With that in mind, I built your consoles to use those abilities to their maximum effect.”
“WHAT ARE THESE TWELVE-BUTTONS ON THE CENTER OF MY CONSOLE?! I DIDN’T DESIGN THIS!” ka blurted out loudly.
Indie looked at Tal, “Do you mind if I answer her question, Sir.”
“Go ahead. Why are you asking permission?”
“I was ordered to train you first, Sir. However, I think I can answer Miss Ka’s question rather quickly.” Tal nodded, and Indie walked over to Ka.
“By the way, Mr. Wolfe. Ka is a Commodore and you should be addressing her as Sir,” Tal added.
“Yes, Sir.” Indie replied. “Sir, how many pulse cannons does the new Sha Class Warship have?”
Ka snorted, “Twelve.”
“And how many buttons are on your panel?”
“Are you suggesting that each of these buttons control a single pulse cannon?!” Ka asked firmly.
“Yes, Sir. The first row of four buttons control the four-pulse-cannons located at the front of the ship. The one furthest to the left controls the top-cannon, the next button controls the bottom cannon, followed by the left and right cannons. The next row of four-buttons controls the middle pulse cannons with the same configurations. And the third-row controls the rear four-pulse-cannons with the same lay out as the others.” Ka stared at him and Indie continued, “Notice that each of the buttons have a number above it from one through twelve.”
“I can see that.”
“Your new scanning system operates directly off the ship’s scanners and has more than triple the range of the system formerly used on the Epys. One change that has been programmed in is that any time an enemy vessel moves inside the range of any of your pulse cannons, a number will appear above the target. That number tells you the pulse cannon with that number is in optimum position to fire on it. If more than one pulse cannon can hit the encroaching ship, then several numbers will appear beside the bogey on your scanning monitor. If you want to fire every pulse cannon designated to hit the target, just press the last number in the list next to the bogey and they will all open fire.”
Ka kept her eyes trained on Indie and asked, “Why haven’t you used this system on all the new ships. This looks much more efficient than the system I designed.”
“You, and possibly Admiral Talent, are the only ones that can make this system work.”
“Why? This seems simple enough,” Ka replied.
“It is if there is only a couple of warships attacking you. But imagine numerous bogeys flashing in on your ship and the numbers appearing on the screen are popping up almost too fast to track. Throw in a few missile barrages and a normal person can be quickly overwhelmed. You have the reaction time and reflexes to make this work; the others don’t.”
“What makes you think I can do this?”
Indie smiled, “I have some training simulations that I’ve designed to get you ready to use the system. If it doesn’t work, I’ll change your console to match the others.”
“You can do that?” Tal asked.
Indie turned to him, “Yes, Sir. But I have no doubt she’ll do an excellent job with this system.”
“And just how do you know that, Mr. Wolfe?” Indie stared at Tal and remained silent. “I asked you a question, Mr. Wolfe.”
“Because I can do it. If I can do it, I know she can as well.”
“Do you have enhanced reaction time and reflexes?” Ka asked.
Indie turned to her and hesitated before answering, “I do.”
“And where did you acquire them?” Tal asked.
Indie turned back to Tal, “I received them during my assassin’s training, Sir.”
Tal and Ka were silent as they stared at the young man, then at each other, and then back at Indie. Finally, Ka smiled, “Indie, you got some splaining to do.”
Indie shrugged and went to the pilot’s chair and sat down. I was drafted by the Guild Master into the Assassins Guild when I was seventeen-years old. I went through the training and was sent back to complete my education. Before I could be activated, I was ordered to go to Earth to assist in weapon development.”
“What did the Guild Master have to say about that?” Tal asked.
“I never spoke to him.”
“WHAT?”
“He never put me on the rolls of assassins. He intended to use me as a deep cover agent when I completed my education. However, in the meantime, he went and got himself killed during the alien invasion of the colonies. As it stands, I
’m just another private citizen.”
“Why did you tell us about this?”
Indie turned to Ka, “I started not to tell you. But…I need you to believe in this new system and what the hey, that episode of my life is over.”
“Why would you even consider joining the guild, especially at such a young age?” Ka inquired.
Indie shrugged, “Look, I was seventeen working on my third doctorate degree. I looked eleven-years old and I got pushed around a lot by the college students around me. Quite frankly, I was ticked off and decided that the first ones I was going to kill were the bullies that made my life miserable. I was young, and no one thinks clearly in their teens.”
Ka snorted, “Indie, you just said you turned twenty recently.”
Indie smiled, “Yeah, you got me there. But by the time I was eighteen, I was left alone by those that tormented me.”
“Why?” Tal asked.
“I developed a stun field I could put around me. If anyone threatened me, I’d tighten my fist and have a good laugh when their asses were shocked across the room. It didn’t take long for the message to get around.”
Tal stared at Indie and glanced at Ka before asking, “You aren’t in the service, are you?”
“Tried, but I was turned down.”
“For what reason?” Ka asked.
“Well, Admiral Montana said I was too young and that I wouldn’t get the respect of those around me looking like an adolescent. He said I’d have to wait. I tried twice later and was turned down both times.” Indie turned to Ka, “Perhaps we should start some simulations for Miss Ka and then I’ll start training you on your console, Sir.”
“Uhhh…Indie.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Have you thought about who can relieve Ka when she needs to take a break or catch some sleep?” Indie stared at Tal and his expression froze. Tal saw it and asked, “You haven’t considered that, have you?”
Indie lowered his head and shook it, “No, Sir, I didn’t. I was so excited about building the system that the thought didn’t enter my mind. I’ll convert it back to the normal layout.”
Tal took his communicator out and pressed a button. “Tal, what’s up.”
