by Doug Farren
“There’s no way we can evacuate even a small fraction of the population,” the helm added.
“How long before they get there?” Scarboro asked.
Billings glanced at his tactical station. “A little over three days.”
Scarboro stood up and started to pace. He put his hands together and kept sliding one over the other as if he was giving himself a hand massage. “What’s taking so long to get a fleet out here?” he asked. “If we don’t stop that bastard he’s going to kill millions of civilians!”
“Can’t we do anything?” Owens pleaded. “The Dragon’s been upgraded by the Kyrra. That’s got to give us some sort of advantage.”
“Not enough of one,” Scarboro replied.
“So we’re just going to sit back and watch them wipe out several million people?” Owens asked as the color drained from his face.
Scarboro walked over and stood next to the communications operator. “If there was anything I could do, anything at all, even if it meant sacrificing the lives of everyone aboard this ship, I would do it. But there’s nothing we can do except follow orders. Centralis has something up their sleeves. Let’s just hope they have a plan in place before we get to Torth.”
Chapter 46
“I still think this crazy plan of theirs isn’t going to work,” Tom said, taking a sip of his drink. It tasted like an expensive wine but contained no alcohol.
“I admit,” Lashpa replied from her chair, “that the chances of success are slim, but we have to try something.”
Dan Kunzman kicked up a spray of water from his perch on the edge of the pool. “It has to work,” he replied. “The lives of several hundred million people are at stake.”
“There’s over 8 million on Torth!” Tom raised his voice.
“We can’t do much- - -”
A woman surfaced and made a playful grab for one of Dan’s legs. She missed and he dove in after her, effectively ending the conversation. Neither was wearing any clothes.
They were relaxing at Dan’s mansion. The huge pool was surrounded by shade-giving trees and the guests were being tended to by barely-dressed male and female servers. The furniture scattered around the pool was built to accommodate a wide variety of species with some specifically designed for use by cybernetically enhanced peacekeepers.
Tom stared at his glass, a sour look appearing on his face. “I should get back to my ship,” he said, setting his half-finished drink on the table next to his recliner. It looked like a standard light-weight webbed pool recliner but was constructed of far stronger materials, allowing it to easily hold up to his extra weight. “The new missiles are loaded and I should get the ship prepped for launch. It just doesn’t feel right to sit around here.”
A furry animal resembling a monkey made a screaming noise as Lashpa dropped her tail. The creature had been happily perched on the end for the past ten minutes but now found itself being lowered to the ground. It scampered down her tail and stopped about mid-way along her back then jumped up and down in agitation apparently upset that Lashpa had removed its perch.
“We’re not scheduled to leave for another five hours,” Lashpa said. “Relax, enjoy yourself.”
“I can’t,” Tom replied, standing up. “People are going to die and I just don’t feel right lying here in the sun, drinking wine, and watching naked women swim.”
Lashpa straightened her legs, lifting herself off the chair. A few backward steps and she was clear. “I don’t understand you,” she said. “There’s nothing you can do right now. Relaxing before a mission is a common practice among many species. Besides, I thought Terrans enjoyed seeing each other without any clothes on. Don’t you?”
“I do!” Tom fired back walking over to the edge of the pool. He was hoping to get Dan’s attention but after seeing what Dan was doing he stopped and stared.
“See,” Lashpa said from behind him. “Dan is well aware of the fact his life could end soon yet he is able to enjoy himself.”
“I don’t need this right now,” Tom said, becoming angry. He spun around and stopped. Lashpa was blocking his path, keeping him close to the pool with the bulk of her body.
“Either one of us could die in the coming battle,” she sternly said. “Don’t you think we should spend a few hours together just enjoying each others company?”
“I know what you’re trying to say,” Tom replied, turning slightly so he could make his way past her. “But I just can’t feel ha- - -”
His words were abruptly cut off as Laspha’s tail flipped him into the pool. His faceplate automatically deployed forming a water-tight seal around his face. He quickly sank to the bottom, landing on his knees. After standing up, he discovered there was at least a meter of water over his head. Furious, he looked around to get his bearing and saw Dan and the woman swimming toward him. He identified the shallow end of the pool and started slowly walking in its direction. Dan and his female guest took turns diving and swimming along side him, not caring in the least that they were both naked.
By the time his head cleared the surface, his fury had turned to embarrassment.
“Don’t you know you’re too heavy to swim!” Dan chided as soon as he thought Tom could hear him.
“I thought you were going to join us,” the woman said as she swam by his ear. “I’d love to see what we could do in the water together.”
Tom ignored them and glared at Lashpa who was quietly watching from the edge of the pool, the little monkey-like animal still clinging to her back. Although she couldn’t smile, her tail was held high and her head was slightly tilted. Tom could hear the Rouldian equivalent of a laugh coming from deep within her. The tiny bit of anger that remained quickly evaporated.
“I guess I deserved that,” he said.
“Tom was expressing a desire to leave,” Lashpa informed Dan.
Dan looked from Tom to Lashpa and back again. “You weren’t thinking of leaving were you?” he asked. “I have a bar stocked full of every drink and decadent food you can imagine. I have a house full of beautiful women, many of whom have asked about you. If there’s anything you want, I can easily get it. I invited you here to enjoy yourself before heading off on what could be your last assignment and you want to leave? Am I that poor of a host?”
“Not at all,” Tom replied pulling himself up out of the pool. “It’s just…I just…It doesn’t feel right to…”
“To what?” Dan had gotten out of the pool and was standing in front of him, his arms crossed over his chest. “Enjoy yourself? What difference would it make if you ran back to your ship right now? What would you do once you got there? You need to learn how to enjoy life when you can.” Dan waved a hand at the cloudless sky. “Don’t you think I know what’s going on up there? Don’t you think I care?”
“I didn’t mean to imply- - -”
“Then stop thinking about things you can’t change,” Dan snapped at him. He walked away, grabbing the hand of the woman who had been in the pool with him and headed toward the house.
“You should listen to him,” Lashpa said, laying a hand on his shoulder.
“I should push you into the pool except I know I can’t,” Tom said. Looking down at himself he added, “He’s lucky I’m waterproof.”
“Dan’s a very good person,” she said. “He has his odd moments when he drinks too much but he always makes amends with those he might offend. He does a lot for the community around here. He’s worried about the future—we all are.”
“So am I,” Tom said, laying a hand on the side of Lashpa’s jaw. “I just find it very hard to sit and do nothing when I think I should be doing something. I didn’t mean to upset him or you.”
“I know,” she replied. “I’m going to catch a few more of those tiny little fish he brought in for me. I don’t know what they are but they’re delicious.”
“Anchovies! They’re from Earth. I’m going to see if I can’t find the restroom.”
“Earth? I’m going to get fat living there,” she said turning t
oward a food-laden table sitting in the shade.
Tom wandered around the expansive house until he found the restroom. A tall woman was waiting for him when he emerged. Like most of the other guests at Dan’s mansion, she was dressed only in what mother nature had given her.
“Ishorri?” Tom practically gasped. “What’re you doing here?”
“Dan invited me. He said you’d be here. Sorry I’m late but I had- - -”
“Dan invited you?”
“He thought you might enjoy my company again before you left. I certainly had a good time the other day.”
It wasn’t hard for Tom to figure out now why Lashpa had thrown him in the pool. A quick thought directed to his biolink sent her a message, “You knew Dan had invited Ishorri, didn’t you?”
“Of course I did,” her voice whispered in his ears. “Now go enjoy yourself!”
Tom experienced a moment of indecision. Ishorri seemed to sense his confusion. Reaching out and grabbing him by the hand, she smiled and said, “Let’s find an unoccupied bedroom.”
A short time later Tom was no longer thinking about the unfortunate people of Torth.
Chapter 47
“We’ve reached our assigned location,” the Orion announced. “A defense station will be dropped off in about twenty minutes.”
“How long before the battleship reaches Torth?” Tom asked.
“Fifteen hours,” the ship instantly replied.
The Orion had reached the Kree’a-Thera star system and was now in position awaiting final orders. He was not alone. Dozens of peacekeeper ships as well as two Tholtaran stealth ships were also in the area. Each of them had been outfitted with as many gravity mine missiles as they could carry. The weapons had come from Torth and other nearby bases.
The plan was simple but relied upon a bold and untested misapplication of the Komodo Dragon’s Kyrra-built weaponry. It also assumed that the Chroniech would be unable to detect the fleet of cloaked ships waiting for them as they entered the system. Even though it was virtually impossible for a ship to detect a cloaked vessel through an operating stardrive field, nobody knew if this same limitation applied to the more advanced Chroniech sensors. The fleet would wait until the last moment to position themselves directly in the path of the approaching battleship at a distance far enough away from the heavily populated planet of Kree’a-Thera to ensure that it was still traveling at FTL speeds.
Each ship would tow a stealth-capable defense station into position while at the same time deploying a swarm of gravity mine missiles. The missiles and the stations would remain cloaked and in a low-power mode until needed. After dropping off the station and the missiles, the stealth-capable ships would activate their cloaks and wait. Four separate fleets of warships totaling almost 300 vessels would be waiting outside detector range for the action to begin.
The only way to force a ship out of stardrive was to disrupt the FTL drive fields. This was normally accomplished by generating a powerful gravitational field in the path of the target ship. That’s what the gravity mines were for. But, given the vastness of space, the odds of the battleship encountering one of the mines was minuscule. That’s where the Komodo Dragon came in. By firing its FTL-enhanced weapons at the battleship, the weapon’s FTL field should, in theory, disrupt the drive field forcing the ship into normal space. The peacekeeper ships, along with the missiles and the defense stations were there to prevent the battleship from leaving, as the main fleet closed in for the attack.
Unfortunately, in order for the plan to work, Torth had to be stripped of much of its defenses. Every available ship in the area would be there to help but the base itself was a skeleton of its former self. Enough was left to give the Chroniech the illusion that it was fully manned and armed. Everybody publicly hoped for, but nobody actually believed, the battleship would be stopped before it wiped out every living thing on Torth. The people of Torth, all 8.5 million of them, had no idea their lives were being traded for the lives of the 170 million living on Kree’a-Thera. It had been a heartbreaking decision that caused many hard-nosed military commanders to cry in front of their staffs but the cold rules of war clearly indicated that this was by far the best way to save the greatest number of lives.
Oblivious of the trap being laid for them, Varku approached the Torth system and began his attack.
Chapter 48
Commander Varku sat in his raised command chair and watched as his battleship approached the largest target they had yet to engage. There were some in the crew who might scoff at his official title but they also knew who brought them to this point in their lives. If Choback had remained in command, all of them would most likely be dead. Their previously hidden base would have become their tomb, despite the superior weapons of the Kyrra.
Turning to his right, he said, “Captain Albrath, engage the enemy. Destroy the base first.”
No further words were required. If the crew had been Terran, Varku might have added ‘show no mercy’ but such words were never spoken by a Chroniech. Their language had no word for mercy. The best translation possible was a word meaning to accept defeat.
Captain Albrath grunted his acceptance and checked his tactical summary screen. Forty-three Alliance warships had been detected waiting for them close to the base. He was sure there were more. The Alliance had had plenty of time to send for more ships.
“Helm, continue on course. Maintain your current speed. Weapons, engage all enemy targets as they are identified. Tactical, scan for cloaked defense stations and gravity mines. Maintain a watch for any ships that may try to trap us. I’m especially concerned the Alliance may have a reserve of ships outside our sensor range that will move in to attack once we’re closer to the planet.”
The crew settled into a well rehearsed routine. Most of the action was handled automatically by the ship’s tactical computers. The crew relaxed at their stations and watched as the ship did all the work. Active scans would first identify a cloaked target. The computer would spend a millisecond analyzing its capabilities and assign it a numerical threat rating. An available weapon would be selected, which would then quickly lock on and open fire.
Cloaked defense stations were extremely vulnerable. They hid themselves by reducing their electromagnetic and gravitic footprint to near undetectable levels by running on battery power only. No shield. No active sensors. But if their sensors missed one, the defense station could power itself up in a matter of seconds and attack. But the Chroniech sensors were finding the stations long before coming within range of its weapons. Three of the powerful defense stations were destroyed before the Base Commander gave up trying to keep them hidden.
“Multiple shielded targets identified,” Shagorath said, as the defense stations switched into active defense mode.
“Continue to advance,” Albrath calmly replied.
A group of red icons suddenly appeared on the tactical display. Shagorath glanced at his threat analysis screen and said, “Seventy-three warships have emerged from behind the planet’s satellite. They’re at high acceleration in a wide formation.”
“By approaching quickly, they hope to limit their losses by the time they’re in range,” Varku told the Captain.
Albrath was perfectly aware of what the Alliance ships were doing but telling his commander that his words of advice were not needed would have been unwise. Instead of replying, he issued a new set of commands. “Helm, apply reverse acceleration and increase as necessary. Allow the enemy to approach but limit our delta-V so we can engage them before they are within their own weapons range. Tactical can give you the best numbers.”
Shagorath turned to his station to begin the calculations. He was about to give the helm his results when another set of red icons appeared on the screen. “One hundred and fifteen warships have just entered sensor range!” he announced. “They’re coming in from deep space at FTL speed. Intercept estimated at 43 minutes.”
“I was right!” Albrath proudly announced before Varku could respond. “Helm! New co
urse – 15 Mark 4. Maximum acceleration. Initiate attack plan one.”
There was no need for a verbal reply as the crew sprang into action. It was clear the Alliance had expected them to back away from the approaching fleet. It was also clear they were trying to surround him with a large number of ships in the hopes of overwhelming his defenses. Captain Albrath had spent a considerable amount of time running battle simulations with just this scenario in mind. Their new course would take them away from the bulk of the enemy ships but, if the helm did his job correctly, it would allow them to engage a portion of the outer edge of the fleet originating from the base.
The Alliance ships were quick to react. Both fleets adjusted their course to compensate for the battleship’s change in tactics. Computers on both sides of the battle crunched trillions of numbers in an attempt to come up with a winning strategy. The two Alliance fleets closed on their prey, maneuvering in formation like a flock of terrestrial starlings. The battleship changed course to compensate. As if they were engaged in a giant video game, the two enemies drew closer together until…
“Fire!” Albrath yelled, slamming his fist down on the arm of his chair.
The Kyrra energy cannon speared a Shandarian heavy cruiser, punching through its shield as if it was made of tissue paper. Armor was blasted into space as the weapon chewed its way into the meat of its target. Those lucky crew members in the path of that horrendous beam were instantly transformed into a mixture of primordial elements and energy. Their death was instantaneous and painless. Others knew for an instant that their lives had come to an end but the thought barely had time to register before it became a painless reality. The unlucky ones died knowing full well their end had come. Some died quicker than others but in the end, they all died.
Six seconds later, the beam adjusted itself until it was tearing its way through another ship. Like the first, it quickly succumbed and ceased to be a threat. Three more Alliance ships were dispatched before the first Alliance weapon made contact with the Chroniech shield. The shield, enhanced by the application of reverse-engineered Kyrra technology, easily deflected the assault. The Kyrra super-weapon swung around ending the attack seconds after it had begun. But more ships were now beginning to converge on the battleship.
