by Saxon Andrew
• • •
The Grillen King had brought his Fleet Admiral and the Commander of his ground forces. The Union had four fleet admirals attending the meeting. Katherine walked into the room; her immediate thought was that the new King was rather young. The King rose and said, “I’m glad you agreed to meet with me.”
Katherine smiled, “I believe the circumstances justify it, Your Majesty. I’m Fleet Admiral Hull and this is Vice-Admiral Arvolo. I believe your Admiral has already met him. This is Rear Admiral Matthews and Commodore Darley.”
“I’m pleased to meet you. Is either one of you the one that attacked the Bronze Ship in my home system?”
Shane was startled by the question, “Commodore Darley and I commanded that mission.”
“You did an excellent job of planning. I commend you on your fine work.”
Shane smiled, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Katherine decided this King had poise. She took a chair across the table from him as the other Union Officers sat down beside her. “It appears your former ally is more than they appear to be.”
“They are. Have you examined the scans my Admiral gave you?”
“We have; our scientists agree that they are a very dangerous species.”
“Have you been able to learn anything about their location?”
Dat shook his head, “We managed to get ten probes on their ship but we aren’t going to activate them until they have time to move to multiple ships.”
“Oh?”
“The probe we’re using will not attach itself to a ship that already has one of our probes attached. The other nine are programmed to go after ships that are leaving the location of the initial probe. We’re hoping they will be taken to multiple planetary systems of those creatures. By the way, what do you call them?”
“They call themselves Servants.”
Shane snickered and Kat looked at him, “Do you find that funny?”
“They’re only servants when they’re serving dinner. Guess what they’re having for dinner.”
Everyone at the table smiled until Katherine said, “Actually, they’re not carnivorous.” Everyone’s smile was replaced with shock. Katherine saw their reaction and continued, “My lead geneticist says that the larva will consume the body of the host it develops in but after that it’s pretty much a vegetarian.”
The Fleet Admiral shook his head, “Our scientists didn’t see that in their genetics.”
“Your scientists were probably biased by the death of your King and made some assumptions. The creature’s jaws are powerful but the edges are not curved to tear flesh. They’re shaped to cut through tough plants. They can cut through flesh but that is not their main purpose. They’re dangerous but they do not eat meat as a diet.”
Dat shook his head, “They’re like a cross between a locust and a wasp.”
Katherine nodded and the King said, “What are locusts and wasps?”
Katherine pulled up the information on her computer and copied it to a memory chip. She handed it to the King, “Have your scientists look at this.”
“Thank you; I will.”
Katherine looked the King in the eyes and said, “Why would I ever ally my forces with you to fight anyone?”
The King looked right back at her and tilted his head, “You do get right to the point.” Katherine nodded. “Actually, you should want us to ally with you. The Servants are not coming after us; they want you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Did your scientists determine that the intelligence level of that species is determined by the ones they use as hosts?”
Katherine looked at Dat and he nodded. “Yes, they made that determination.”
“Then you should know that a good parent is always looking for ways to improve their children and their species. I may be wrong, but I believe the Servants are not located anywhere near you or us. They search for the best host for their larvae and, if you had to say where the most intelligent species in this corner of the universe are located; what would you say?” Katherine was stunned by the King’s remarks.
Dat said, “They found us first. Now it makes sense why they wanted you to ally with them.”
Katherine looked at Dat, “Why?”
“By getting the Grillen into a war with us, when they finally come in and attack us, the Grillen will stand back and allow them to defeat us without intervening.”
The King smiled “You see it as well. We are beneath them; they don’t really see us as a worthy host.”
Katherine looked at the King with her eyebrows lowered, “Then it begs the question why you would want to ally with us? If you are in no danger from them, why would you want this?”
“What happens when they come and discover we have not fought a war with you? I suspect they will not be at all happy with us, especially after sharing some of their technology. If we do fight a war with you, both of us will have our strength greatly reduced. They may choose to go ahead and remove a possible future enemy by destroying us.”
Dat leaned forward, “You left out one other very important possibility.”
The King shook his head and laughed, “You are very smart, Admiral.”
Katherine looked at Dat and then back at the King, “What point is that?”
The King leaned forward, “We know that this species operates with a kind of feudal system. I suspect their high royalty will reserve your species for themselves but the lower lords may find us to be just what the doctor ordered. We are not in the clear by any means.”
“Do you think they’ll attack if we join our forces?”
The King looked at the Admiral and he lifted his shoulders. He turned back to Katherine, “I guess the answer to that question lies in how many warships they have at their disposal.”
Katherine struggled with what to do. She believed the King was being honest but she just couldn’t bring herself to trust a civilization that had recently been attempting to conquer her. The King saw her struggle and leaned forward, “I don’t blame you for not wanting to trust us. It’s our fault.”
“Why did you do this?”
“My father was a complex being. He was ruthless and brutal to all that opposed him but he really had my people’s welfare at heart. He was ambitious and wanted to expand his empire. The trait that best described him is ego. When your ego composes most of your character, you never see the danger of those you think are weak. I know he would have lost the war if he had continued his aggression against you.”
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?”
“Admiral, I saw that Bronze Ship and I can tell you for the first time my father was frightened and out of his element.” The King paused and lowered his head, “He didn’t really want to believe that one of your ships blew that ship into rubble. I looked that ship up in our ancient records and do you know what I found?” Katherine shook her head, “You used millions of them to defeat the Red Sector. If you still have one to use against that ship, I must believe you still have them to use in the current conflict. If I had to bet on a winner, you would get my vote. I realize that we will be in a supporting role but I genuinely believe we can work together and win this.”
“What’s to prevent one of your ancestors from attacking us again? Your civilization is ruled by your King and he could do whatever he chooses.”
“When a new King is crowned, he swears to defend the Empire against all enemies. The oath the King swears to obey is written by our Community of Lords. They have agreed to change the Royal Oath to say that any King of the Grillen Empire will defend the Empire and your Union against all enemies. I have already sworn that I will obey that oath and only the Community can change it. I don’t believe they will ever make that change; they never give up any advantage the King gives them.
“So how do you see this happening?”
The King looked at Katherine, smiled, and shook his head, “Admiral, I said earlier that the most intelligent species in this corner of the universe is locate
d in your galaxy. I’m not so egotistical as to believe that I could plan this better than you. You need to tell us how we can make this a successful partnership and I will do all I can to support your directives.”
Katherine sighed and looked over at Dat, “I really didn’t want to like this King but I must confess that I can’t help but feel that way.”
Dat looked at the King, “The first thing you can do to help us is to tell us if there’s any way to defeat those beams they use.”
The Grillen Admiral said, “We don’t know of a way to defeat them.” Dat shook his head. “But I can tell you a way to get close.”
Dat laughed out loud, “Then we need to get together and start working on it.”
The Admiral looked at Katherine, “How many of those large white ships do you have in your inventory.”
“Probably not as many as you think. At last count we had more than fifteen million stored away.”
The Admiral sat down, “I was hoping for a million.”
“They have to be modified and brought up to date. That’s going to take time.”
The King looked at Katherine, “We will act like we are at war and that should buy us some time.”
“Why don’t you get your Fleet Admiral with Admiral Arvolo and they can make the critical decisions on where we go from here.”
The King stood and everyone stood with him, “I will do whatever you need us to do. I am sworn to defend you and I take that oath seriously. We will never betray you again.”
Katherine looked at the King and bowed, “It’s a shame your father didn’t see things like you.”
“He saw them, Admiral; he just refused to diminish himself by working with others.”
Shane’s wrist unit went off with an alarm and everyone in the room looked at him. He saw Kelli on the display, “Is something wrong, Commodore?”
“Sir, more than ten thousand warships from the civilizations in M87 have just emerged into normal space and have told us to leave the planet.”
“Have you determined why they want us to leave?”
“They’ve learned the Grillen King is on the planet and they intend to kill him.”
“Send me the frequency they’re communicating on.”
Shane saw the frequency and sent it to the other Union Officers in the room. Katherine entered the channel in her computer and activated the system, “You are in violation of a sanctioned negotiation.”
An image appeared on the wall’s display and the blue creature said, “We’ve decided that the violation is worth whatever sanctions would follow. I see the Grillen King is present and we intend to execute him for the invasion of our galaxy.”
Katherine stared at the display and said, “We will not allow you to carry out that theat.”
“It is no threat; we are going to do it.”
“If you attempt to harm him, I will declare war on your civilizations. You need to consider what that means. You have not faced the might of our newest ships and you will pay a price beyond anything you can imagine.” Katherine saw the creature pause and mute the transmitter. He spoke off the screen and then reopened the channel, “You are not the threat to us that the Grillen pose. Once he is eliminated, we will immediately surrender to your forces.”
Katherine shook her head. She realized the civilizations in M87 knew the Union would not attack them if they offered no resistance. She looked at Dat for help and he activated his wrist unit, “This is Admiral Arvolo and if you don’t remove your ships from this system within two minutes, I will have them destroyed.”
“Did you say Arvolo?”
“I did.”
The creature muted the channel again and, Dat waited for a minute, and said, “You now have ninety seconds.”
• • •
The intruders were in a quandary. They couldn’t believe the five White Ships could destroy all ten thousand of their warships. But the name Arvolo was legend in M87. They argued among themselves with half of them calling for withdrawal.
• • •
Kelli sat on the Jupiter and had no idea how she was going to take on ten thousand ships. There was no way she could prevent some of them from beaming the planet. She heard Arvolo say, “Times up, Commodore Carpenter, please launch a full attack on those intruders.”
Kellie shook her head and knew she had to make them believe their ships were in danger. But how could she do that. Then she thought about what Shane would have done and smiled, “Launch all Rovers and have them wait at their ships’ hulls. All ships, fire a full wave of shards at those ships and follow the first wave up with three more. Rovers, you will follow the second wave out.”
• • •
The ten thousand ships saw two thousand Rovers erupt out of the hulls of the five giant Union Ships, immediately followed by a massive launch of millions of small projectiles that moved toward them at high velocity. “What is that?”
“Sir, I have no idea. They are small projectiles that are coming at us in a huge wave. They’ve just fired another wave and the Rovers have fallen in behind them. Sir, a third wave has been fired as well. There are millions of those projectiles moving toward our ships.”
The Commander of the M87 warships shook his head. He had never seen this weapon the Union Ships had just launched. He looked at his display and saw that two thirds of his ships had already jumped out. His remaining ships only outnumbered the incoming Rovers by a small margin, “Jump away; all ships, jump away.”
Kelli saw the remaining intruders disappear and hit her communicator, “Sir, please move off the planet to your ships immediately. They might be coming back with a larger fleet.”
Katherine looked at the Grillen King and smiled, “I will take you back to your home world. I don’t want you taking the risk in an unarmed shuttle.”
The King smiled, “I will gladly take you up on your offer. Admiral, inform the home fleets of our arrival.” The Admiral activated his communicator as the attendees moved rapidly out of the building and boarded a Union Shuttle.
• • •
Gem looked at Shane, “It appears your former Second is quick on her feet.”
“I’m proud of her. She could have taken on that fleet with the Rovers and probably won. Instead, she found a way to avoid loss of life. She’s come a long way.”
“You appear to like her a lot.”
Shane chuckled, “I do.” Gem stared at him and he said, “But I only love one person. There is plenty of room in my life to like huge numbers of those I encounter.”
Gem smiled and followed him into the shuttle’s landing bay.
• • •
Shane and Gem were taken to their ships and they formed up on Admiral Hull’s ship. Katherine entered the bridge and looked at Admiral Jon Anders, “I’m surprised you didn’t assume command.”
“Admiral, Jill and I have been out of the loop on the new developments done on the Jukeboxes. We would have been guessing on how to use the new guns and systems. We discussed it and decided that we could probably take on that many ships with the Rovers and Jukebox penetrators but the plan your officer devised was worth trying. She was pretty quick on her toes to realize that M87 has never seen the plastic shards.”
“I’m assigning the two of you to command a fleet of our Major Battleships. The Guns will not be part of their armament.”
Jill tilted her head, “Why not?”
“They were developed to take out the Grey Ships used by the Grillen. Those ships are no longer an issue and we can use the space for other weapon systems.”
The Grillen King listened to the conversation and said, “May I speak with the officer that defended us.”
Jill hit her panel and Kelli appeared on the main display, “Yes Sir.”
“Commodore, I am the King of the Grillen Empire. I wish to thank you for defending me and my staff from the intruders and I invite you to visit at your first opportunity. I sincerely appreciate your quick thinking and bravery in facing off against that large fleet.”
&nbs
p; Kelli smiled, “No thanks are called for, Your Majesty. I did my duty. You should thank my former commander who trained me; that’s where the real credit should go.”
“Even so, you are granted full citizenship in the Grillen Empire and I want to introduce you to my subjects.”
Dat smiled, “You will go down to the planet with him when we arrive, Commodore. We’ll have a Rover go with you to bring you back to the Union.”
The King laughed, “Are you a mind reader?”
“Your people need to have examples like this. We do as well.”
Katherine stared at Kelli and knew she had matured and was no longer a self-serving, egotistical elitist. Shane really had done a good job developing her. She was another tool for the Union to use to ensure its survival.
Katherine sat down in the Command Chair and looked at the King, “I’m transferring you and your staff to Admiral Matthews’ ship; he and his squadron will take you home; Admiral Arvolo and I have a lot of work to do.”
The Grillen Admiral quickly said, “I have a question before we go.”
“Yes.”
“I have received reports that the warriors that attacked my forces on the planets in the Red Sector were…uhhh…unusual.”
Katherine shook her head, “Those warriors are not human.”
“I know that; just what are they?”
“You know we were fighting a war in another galaxy.”
“Yes.”
“They are the ones we defeated. They’ve volunteered to fight for us.”
The Admiral looked at Dat, “When you have the time, will you tell me how that happened?”
“I’ll do better than that; I’ll introduce you to one of them and he can tell you.”
The Admiral nodded but wasn’t at all sure he wanted to get anywhere near one of the creatures he had seen in recordings taken from the survivors. Dat saw his expression and said, “You’ll like him; he’s quite witty.”
The Admiral shook his head, “I imagine he is.”
Katherine tried not to, but she laughed out loud, “Get in line, Admiral. I felt the same way at first but now I really like him.”
