by Saxon Andrew
Finally the formation hung in space and Shane said, “This time, I am going to jump the formation in the middle of the weave.”
“Why?”
“There may come a time where the Servants bypass the globe and just jump into the space we’re attacking. We’ll have to get out quickly.”
The Admiral nodded and said, “Lead the way.”
Two hours later Shane called a halt to the operation. He looked at the Admiral and said, “The final jump we’re going to practice is where I jump the formation into deep space. I want all of your jump officers to program in an escape route. They should have a series of jumps preprogrammed into their panels where they could quickly jump fifty times to escape a Servant pursuit.”
“That will require some time.”
“If you don’t mind, my computers can send a series of jumps to all of your ships so that none of them jump anywhere near each other.”
“You never cease to amaze me, Admiral. When would you see the need for this?”
“When the Servants jump a billion ships in on our formation.”
The Grillen Admiral’s expression changed instantly, “Do you anticipate them doing that?”
“One never knows. I think they have the ships to do it. I don’t know if they have the organization to pull it off. Either way, I don’t like taking chances.” Shane paused, “Of course I’ll be dropping a probe when we jump away and if they leave ships at a location that we can handle, I’ll send the attack coordinate and all of our ships will just jump to that location in formation ready to fight again.”
The Grillen shook his head, “I wish we could use all our ships. We have a huge number not being used.”
Shane smiled, “Oh, I didn’t tell you that we have more formations training? We expect to have three box formations ready to go within the next year.”
“No, you didn’t tell me.”
“One other thing Admiral; we’ll continue training with our group but I would highly recommend that you have your ships in the globe to fly directly away from the center so that they won’t be firing on each other. As they move further away from their starting locations, their room to maneuver will increase.”
“Why don’t you give me two weeks to work on that? We’ll get back together then and do this again.”
“Two weeks it is. Now I’m going to have the computers send your ships their escape jumps and we’ll end the day by practicing the escape jump.”
“Let me know when you’ve sent them.”
Four hours later the Grillen Admiral was amazed at what he saw. He ordered his flagship to remain at the escape coordinate and watched what happened. The giant formation appeared and disappeared faster than he could follow. He looked at his jump officer, “See if you can follow a jump track.”
“Sir, there are so many of them overlapping each other that I can’t pull one out of the chaos.”
The Grillen Admiral looked at his display and saw the Union’s Flagship had also remained behind. Shane appeared on his display and said, “Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” The Grillen Admiral nodded as the Saturn disappeared.
• • •
Gibbs ran his fleet through the exercise again and watched them on his main monitor. The formations moved incredibly fast but Gibbs wasn’t satisfied. He looked at his Executive Officer, “Have them do it again.”
He sat back in his chair and saw his display activate on his panel. He saw Lydia staring at him and he said, “What?”
“You’ve had us doing this for twelve hours and we’ve only improved our time a tenth of a second.”
“We can do it faster.”
“In what universe do you live? Our times have matched Admiral’s Matthews’ best times. Do you just enjoy watching the monitor and can’t think of anything else to do?”
Gibbs got angry, “They’ll need to be better once combat starts!”
“How do you know?” Gibbs stared at Lydia and tried to come up with a response but couldn’t think of one. “This has never been tried in actual combat and you have no idea if it will work if we cut our time by half. You’re just being a perfectionist and perhaps you would like to take your ship into the formation and see if you can do it any faster. I suspect you’ll just slow us down with your standing by and watching what’s going on. Your ships don’t deserve this lack of confidence.”
“What do you mean lack of confidence!?!”
“We’ve matched Shane’s times and he’s been training for a year longer. Are you that blind?” Lydia shook her head and said, “Let me get back to my poor underachievers and do this again. This is just like when you tried to stack the towels.”
Gibbs saw the display go dark and remembered the three hours he spent trying to stack the bath towels in the closet so no wrinkles would show. He slowly shook his head and looked at his Executive Officer, who was still standing in front of him. “You agree with her?”
“I do, Sir. Quite frankly, I think you’re being ridiculous.”
Gibbs’ eyebrows came together and he started to put Thomas in his place but realized that he was one of the most solid officers he had. Gibbs leaned back and lifted his communicator, “All ships are released from training for four days. Go home and enjoy some free time.” The huge formation vanished from Gibbs’ display. “They haven’t moved that fast in any of our exercises.”
Commodore Thomas turned to leave and said, “They were afraid you’d change your mind.”
Gibbs stared at Thomas as he left and looked at the bridge crew. He saw their exhaustion and knew fatigue would slow them down. He immediately understood why the fleet’s times had gotten worse as the long day had dragged on. He looked at the jump officer, “Take the crew back to Earth Station. Notify the ships that they have seven days instead of five; we’ll meet here at twelve hundred hours in a week.” The crew looked at each other and Gibbs saw their excitement at going home. He punched his panel and Lydia appeared, “Next time, don’t wait so long to tell me what an ass I’m being.”
“Count on it. I’ll see you at home.”
Gibbs sighed; he knew he hadn’t heard the end of this. Dat appeared on his display and looked quite happy, “Good morning, Admiral.”
“Why are you so happy?”
“My fleets were able to come within a half second of Shane’s best times. They’ve made remarkable progress. How are you doing?”
Gibbs rolled his eyes and blew out a breath, “We’ve been able to match his best times in twenty of our exercises.”
“That’s incredible. Why are you so glum?”
“I’ve driven them too hard, Sir. I may have caused them to lose their edge.”
“What are you doing about it?”
“I’ve given them seven days liberty, Sir.”
Dat smiled, “I’ll bet you a dinner they come back and beat his time.”
Gibbs shook his head, “I really hope you’re right.”
“Are you taking the bet or not?”
“I never bet against myself.”
Dat smiled, “That is a good policy, Gibbs.”
The display went dark and Gibbs wondered why Dat had contacted him. After a moment, he knew that Lydia must have called him prior to his decision about giving the Fleet liberty. He shook his head and hoped his time at home was refreshing. He knew the first few days were probably not going to be.
• • •
Dat went to visit Blacky and found him with his ten children. Dat was shocked and Blacky shrugged, “We do things in a big way, old friend.”
“Apparently you do!” Blacky introduced then to Dat and he could tell the young Madators were anxious to escape. “It’s good to meet all of you. Do you have something to do while I speak with your parents?” The young Madators disappeared faster than a steak in front of a bulldog. Dat smiled, “They’re so much like you. My children are just starting to talk and yours are fully developed.”
“Predators are forced by nature to develop quickly. It’s the only way to help them survive when pitte
d against a formidable array of enemies seeking to kill them.”
“They certainly got out of here faster than most adults I’ve seen in your species.”
“They’re more like their mother. She was one of our best hunters.”
“What do you mean was?”
Dat turned around and saw Ringie come through the entrance. “You still are, my Love.”
“And don’t you forget it. Hello, Dat. How’s your family?”
“The children are growing like weeds and walking. They are a handful.”
“That’s wonderful. What brings you here?”
“I just wanted you to know that we’re about to kick off our attacks on the Servants.” Blacky looked at Ringie and Dat saw them stiffen up with the announcement. “What’s wrong?”
Blacky blew out the air in his body and rolled his head down to his chest, “I’ve read most of the history of Earth’s war with M87.”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Do you remember what your civilization did when the Violet Ships came in and destroyed Earth?”
Dat stared at Blacky for a moment and said, “We went to M87 and kicked their butts.” Dat paused and saw the two Madator’s nervousness was obvious. In an instant he knew why, “You think they’ll launch a massive attack against us here?”
“We do; and if you think about it, you’d do the same thing in you were in their place.”
Dat sighed, “You’re right; it would force us to leave their domain and come to the defense of our planets.”
Ringie put an arm on Dat’s shoulder, “Our planet is in your galaxy.”
Dat looked at her and then turned to Blacky, “I understand your fear.”
“We’re going to take steps to decrease the possibility of us being found by the Servants.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“As soon as you launch your attack, we’re going to blast every building on the planet and all of us are going into the soil and will stay there until the war is resolved.”
Dat thought a moment, “If they scan your planet, all they’ll see are wild animals roaming the surface and the burned structures of an intelligent species that lost a war.”
“That’s what we’re hoping will happen.”
Dat started shaking his head, “We can’t just wait on them to attack us here; the same thing will happen, only they’ll be coming with more ships. We have to try and even the odds.” The two Madators stared at Dat saying nothing. After a moment Dat said, “You’ve already thought about the best way to do this, haven’t you?” Ringie looked at Blacky and her head rolled completely around her body. Dat saw the expression of frustration and said, “What?”
“I lost our bet. Blacky said you’d get it in less than two minutes and I thought it would take longer than that.”
Blacky said smugly, “I’ve always said you’re extremely smart for a non-predator type of being.”
Dat rolled his eyes at Blacky and then slowly shook it, “The danger level to our forces will go up to the point where I’m not sure we’ll survive the initial engagements.”
“We want to help distract them.”
“How?”
“What would cause them to stumble around doing nothing?”
Dat thought a moment and said, “If there was a sudden change in leadership, they’d not be able to do much until it was resolved.”
Ringie’s head went to the top of her body, “We’re even!”
Blacky looked at Dat, “You could have thought about that a little longer.”
“Hey, I’m sorry; that was obvious.”
“It took us an hour to arrive at that conclusion.”
“What are you saying?”
“You know, in the second and third waves, we dropped some of our warriors on the minor planets in their galaxy.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, they have remained undetected waiting for word from us that it is time to attack. We’ll order an attack on the Ruling Lords on those planets to coincide with the attempted destruction of their ruling planet.”
“Say what!?!”
“Come on, Dat. You blew up more than a thousand of the planets we lived on. Certainly you can get a shot off at that one planet.”
Dat started shaking his head, “Blacky, that planet had almost half a billion ships defending it. They keep huge numbers in green space watching for anything that even remotely looks like it’s moving their way.”
“If you’re scared, say you’re scared.”
“That’s not it. I don’t see any way to get close enough to launch a major penetrator at that planet.”
“Don’t launch it; just deliver it.”
“What do you mean?”
“We weren’t launched by the ships that took us to the planets we invaded. We just exited the landing bay and popped into normal space when the ship moved away.”
Dat’s eyes narrowed, “And since you didn’t have a jump drive around you, there wasn’t a jump signature on your entry.”
“Well, we don’t know about that…is that important?”
Dat smiled, “Thanks, you’ve been a big help.”
“That’s what we’re here for; we aim to please.”
“I’ll get back to you on when we’re going to launch our attack.”
“That would be good.”
Dat turned and ran toward his ship. He had his wrist unit raised and yelled as he entered his ship, “Admiral, I need an emergency meeting of all our senior Admirals.”
“What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you when I arrive. I’m stopping by Belwen’s lab and then I’ll come to your office. Set the meeting for tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll do it but I need to know what’s going on.”
“We can’t use the Grillen and Rovers when we launch our attacks.”
“WHAT!!”
“I’ll explain later. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Kat’s display went dark and she experienced a feeling of dread; what had Arvolo uncovered? She notified the Fleet Admirals about the meeting and didn’t sleep well that night.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dat arrived at Admiral Hull’s office the next morning with Belwen in tow. The Admirals saw Belwen and wondered what was going on. Admiral Hull had been evasive about telling them what she knew. Kat said, “Admiral Arvolo, you may start the meeting.”
“Good morning, I went to visit the Madators yesterday and they expressed some concerns about our coming attacks on the Servants. I must confess that I’ve not seen a Madator express fear in any situation but they were fearful.”
Gibbs said, “I find that hard to believe.”
Dat looked at him, “Believe it…and their fears were justified.” Dat watched the statement sink in. “We really haven’t thought about what consequences would follow our actions in the Servant Galaxy. If you think back to when the Hive invaded our galaxy and destroyed Earth, what was our immediate response to their actions?” Dat watched the group carefully. He knew these Admirals knew the Union’s history better than most history professors. Their expressions changed as they saw the implications and Dat said, “The Servants would immediately launch an attack on our galaxy with overwhelming forces.” Dat paused and said, “You might think that they wouldn’t invade here and leave us to run rampant in their domain; however, they have enough warships to take us on in their galaxy and still send millions to destroy our planets here. I trust you remember your history; we attacked the Hive without concerning ourselves if they came back and attacked us. We were looking for revenge and damn the consequences.”
Shane started shaking his head slowly, “But Admiral, the same thing would happen if we don’t act. They would just send more ships against us since we wouldn’t be tying down any of their fleets in their galaxy.”
“They would have to know where to send them.”
The entire assembly was struck silent by the remark. Dat watched them and knew Admiral Hull already understood because of what he to
ld her the previous day. He saw it on her face and he was glad she waited for the others to arrive at the same conclusion. Kelli saw it first, “OH MY GOD!” The Admirals turned to her and she looked at Dat shaking her head, “It won’t work.”
Lydia looked at Kelli, “What won’t work?”
Kelli looked at Lydia, “The Servants have never seen a Jukebox. The ship that we killed at the Grillen Governing Planet didn’t have time to communicate its existence to them. They would have no idea where the Jukeboxes came from.”
Dat said, “If you were in their place, what would you believe?”
Kelli looked at him and lowered her head for a moment. She looked up and said, “I would have to believe that the Jukeboxes were advanced ships of the creatures that attacked their planets. I would be forced to believe they used the old ships to drop warriors to soften them up before a major invasion.”
Shane smiled, “She’s right and that means we can’t use any ship in our initial attacks that the Servants have seen here.”
Dat nodded, “Which means we can’t use the Rovers or Grillen Ships we’ve been training with.”
Shane tilted his head, “I’m almost forced to think like Kelli; it won’t work.”
Dat smiled, “I’m glad to hear you say ‘almost’.”
Gem turned to Shane, “Do you see a way for us to use the weave without the Rovers?”
Shane shrugged, “The Jukebox box is extremely effective by itself. The Rovers only supplement its hitting power. The thing that makes this dangerous is there will be no protection from ships jumping in.”
Dat said, “Have you not been practicing jumping away in the middle of an attack before the sides of the box complete their runs?”
Shane sighed, “Yes, we have and, without Rovers in the mix, I suspect we’d have to do that most of the time.”
