quick skirmish.
Master Mason, knight extraordinaire, chased the Tyrant around the set,
while the other two knights, in a sideshow, called a truce and began order-
ing coffees from the food vendor that they attempted to lure on stage with
them. As they sipped their drinks, they loudly conversed and made bets as
to which knight would defeat the other and why.
Mason stumbled over the loose leg armor, falling to the feet of Sir Hon-
orable Big Vain while he drank his coffee. With his free arm, Sir Honorable
Big Vain brandished his collapsible sword and impaled Master Mason in
the chest.
“I just had to put you out of your misery, you know.”
The skit had long-been abandoned and collapsed into improv. Cindy
pretended to be winded and looked at the two coffee-drinking knights.
“Can I join you?”
“Of course.”
Cindy slashed her sword across the chests of the two knights seated on
stage and made a very public and overly long-winded declaration of love
towards Lady Laura. Laura herself took Cindy’s hand and walked off stage
with her. The curtain fell, and everyone seated in the dining room roared
with applause.
It took a few minutes, but everyone extricated themselves from their
outfits and sat together at the head table closest to the stage. Amanda, Alex, Timmy, Zeek, and Jorge sat on the side facing their guests, while Cindy,
Mason, Jerome Heart and Brandy Dunner sat facing the stage, leaving one
chair open.
Jerome looked at Laura as she passed him. “Hey, you can sit here if
you want.”
Laura was left off the assigned seating list intentionally, with Timmy
65
reasoning that she should be free to sit wherever she wanted in the half-dozen or so empty seats through the hall. Laura looked at the table with
Renee, Jackie, Mac, Bogdan and a couple others, laughing in the corner and toasting each other. She glanced at Alex, then smiled at Jerome. “I’m
going to sit over there with those guys, Jerome. But thank you anyway.”
Alex glanced around the room, surprised that a few of the other diners,
both men, and women, seemed disappointed she didn’t choose their table.
“You know, if you ever faced a manpower shortage, all you would need
to do is have her stand in front of a crowd and ask for volunteers,” Amanda
whispered into Alex’s ear.
Alex nodded and took a sip of wine. He looked at the Happy Birthday,
Timmy! banner hanging across the back wall, lost in thought. The event was about halfway over. Amanda was a bit disappointed about something but
wouldn’t say what, which annoyed Alex to no end.
Minutes passed, and the rear door opened, allowing a few more people
into the event room.
“Excuse me, I need to pee,” Amanda said, placing her napkin on
the table.
Alex raised both eyebrows as everyone at the table smirked at her.
“Please, no need to be polite, not at this table,” Alex replied sarcastically.
Amanda grinned back at him and sped off towards the new arrivals.
“It’s so great you both could make it. I’m Amanda, the one you’ve been
speaking with.”
“Oh, thank you so much, Amanda, it means so much for us to be here
today. You’ve been such a great help.”
“Don’t mention it. Timmy is at the large table at the front. Why don’t
you go say hello?”
Amanda walked closely behind the new arrivals as they approached
Timmy who was facing away from them. One of them reached from behind
and hugged Timmy against the chair. He started and looked over his shoul-
der, to realize it was his mom hugging him. His dad stood nearby, smiling.
Timmy jumped out of his chair and hugged both of his parents, his eyes
wet. It was a couple of years since he last saw them.
* * *
66
Alex wondered about his father and realized he still hadn’t called him back, despite the half-dozen missed calls. Shame for not returning his calls
warmed his face, and he wondered if he could sneak away to make a quick
call. But since a lot of time had passed since the first call, it wouldn’t be easy to have a quick conversation. Better to wait until later tonight, when he
thought time wouldn’t be an issue.
Alex looked up to see Timmy escort his parents to the back of the
room, while Amanda sat back down at the table.
“You did that?” Jorge asked Amanda, holding a wine glass of beer.
She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
Jorge nodded his head several times and finally said, “Thank you…
from here.” He pointed to his heart.
Alex squinted his eyes at him suspiciously, as he wondered how much
alcohol he’d consumed.
“So, Brandy… Captain of the Destiny. Do you have family? I want to
hear everything,” Amanda said, looking across the table at the woman.
Brandy flashed a smile. “I am married, with two kids. They live in the
block with me. I’d be happy to have you both over for dinner one evening.”
Alex tuned in just in time to hear the invite for dinner. “Sounds great,”
Amanda said with a smile. “Set it up with Laura when you pick a day.”
Alex looked at Jerome and figured he better do something other than
stare at people. He knew Jerome and Brandy quite well from their inter-
views and evaluations for the pilot program. “Ready to get that ship into
the air?” Alex asked, then took a drink.
“Absolutely. What’s the current ETA on the weapon fabrication?”
“Your ship is the Seraph, right, the public one built in Israel?” Alex was a tinge embarrassed he couldn’t remember off the top of his head.
“Yeah.”
“You’re getting one of the pulse cannons, which should be completed
by the end of the month. Then we will try to put several laser turrets on
each of the ships before the battle. After the battle, we will build our first FTL ship. That’s what I am really looking forward to.”
“Ready to leave the system, are you?”
“It’s time we meet our galactic neighbors.”
67
“Have you given any thought that maybe we shouldn’t do that?”
Zeek asked.
“Every territorial discovery came with massive gains in our history,”
Alex replied while he took a sip of wine.
“Doesn’t always work out for the natives.”
Alex spun his wine around in his glass, not ready to engage in that kind
of argument. “Yeah, I’ve put thought into it.” He finished his wine. He was
stuck between not wanting to leave the party early, and not wanting to wait
for Timmy’s return. Alex looked at the time and at the large table of pres-
ents in the corner of the room. “I’ll see everyone on Monday. I am taking
tomorrow off!”
Everyone at the table stared at him, eyes wide, including Amanda. Alex
hadn’t taken a day off since he set out from his father’s house on their
maiden voyage. He realized his decision was impulsive and he almost took
it back, but he let his words stand. He needed a day off.
He stood, heading for the door. Amanda followed him, putting a hand
on his shoulder. “So, what are we doing tomorrow?”
Alex carefully shrugged off her arm and looked at her with symp
athy,
“It’s not that kind of day off.”
* * *
Drake watched the TV from his new office as he unpacked. Two pundits
were arguing over the activities observed via the live streamed party on the
UEF website.
“They were drinking alcohol, on the job!”
“C’mon, no one was in uniform, and everyone was enjoying a pri-
vate event.”
“Had the Zorn attacked in that moment, who would have commanded
the ships?”
“They are not due to arrive for some time now. You’re just a person
whose fear controls all their decisions in life.”
“Not fear, responsibility!”
Drake reached up and shut the TV off. He spent time hanging pictures
on the wall and then reading the stack of information they’d left for him,
required reading to do his job.
68
He reached the table of contents in the large three-ring binder as a knock echoed through the room. The door was ajar, and his visitor pushed
it open slowly.
“I just wanted to welcome you to the team. I am looking forward to
working with you.”
Drake looked up at Lucy, who was dressed as professionally as he had
ever seen her on TV.
“You get what you pay for, and you paid a lot.”
“I am well aware. I’ll give you the day to settle in, while you attempt to
absorb that information. Meeting at eight AM tomorrow, Roosevelt room.
But watch your email for last minute changes, which happen frequently.
Take your lunches whenever you want, any travel requests go through one
of my assistants.” Lucy disappeared from the doorway.
“Thanks,” he said to her back.
The door shut completely, which cut off the background noise to the
rest of the building.
He continued scanning the table of contents. The Presidential Seal was
barely visible as a watermark in the background of every page.
“Never thought I’d ever work here,” he mumbled to himself. His phone
rang, and he looked down to see who had called.
Alex.
Now you call me, he thought sarcastically. He worked his jaw once or
twice. His finger hovered between accept or ignore. He flipped over the
phone and let it ring to voicemail.
69
Chapter 6
It’s Just a Game
THE RAZIYA, NUBOKO, Seraph and the Abraham hovered in space beside each other, facing an approaching Zorn Armada. The Destiny, being a third of the size as the newer ships, held a high orbit over Earth, far in
the distance.
“Two dozen destroyers broke off from the formation and are inbound.”
“Fire the rail cannon, target the incoming destroyers.” Alex focused on
the screen in front of him, which showed the targeting image of the ship
about to be fired upon. The image was provided by a three-foot diameter
telescope that was tuned in with the weapon and targeting systems, housed
in a compartment right above the rail system.
Deep within the rail cannon, a twenty-five-pound steel cylinder rested
on two ceramic pieces of tubing. Surrounding those were large blocks of
electrically-charged magnets. At the push of a button, the nearest blocks
received a one-hundredth of a second of electrical power, then in auto-
matic algorithmic planning, each proceeding block activated and deacti-
vated in a similar fashion. Each time a block activated, it pulled the steel
cylinder along the rails towards it. Just before the cylinder reached the
block, it would deactivate, and the momentum of the cylinder carried it
forward until the next block activated and pulled on the cylinder, increas-
ing its speed.
The blocks were installed like a quadruple helix down the full length of the barrel, all seventy-five feet. When the cannon round left the barrel,
it was traveling at nearly twenty thousand miles per hour. In the vacuum
of space, there was nothing to slow the momentum of the round, except
another ship. The firing ship itself would require a minuscule course correc-
tion each time the cannon was fired. If the ship was in a relative standstill, it would be pushed back faster and faster with each shot.
The viewscreen showed a large ship, possibly a carrier or some other
vessel. Roughly two kilometers long, it was the largest ship in the Zorn fleet.
After a moment, the target let out a puff of internal gasses of some kind.
“Did we hit it?” Alex looked around, confused.
“Yes, we did. We have a direct hit,” Jack said from the tactical console
behind Alex.
“Fire again!”
Nine seconds after the first round fired, the Abraham let out another
round. It resulted in a noticeable puff of gas as well.
“Are we causing any damage?”
Jack took control of the telescope from his station and zoomed in on
the target. The viewscreen showed a hole in the hull of the ship, and gas
leaked out of the hole into space.
“Target a different area of the ship and keep firing.” Alex watched
unimpressed by the visual damage he was observing on the screen.
“Sir, the destroyers are closing in. They are almost within pulse range.”
“Order the Nuboko and the Seraph to fire at will.”
Each ship targeted a destroyer, and in similar fashion, a ball of metal
was flung down a barrel. As the round passed through a half-dozen charged
rings, the ball of metal turned into a small star.
When the destroyers were only ten kilometers away, they responded.
Four pods from each destroyer detached and maneuvered independently.
Each small star found its target as they closed the distance at a few kilome-
ters per second, turning the pointed nose of each destroyer into a molten
mess. Large amounts of atmosphere vented from each ship. As soon as the
first rounds collided with the enemy, another round was fired, each of the
destroyers receiving critical damage.
“Sir, eighty pods incoming.”
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The Raziya launched four torpedo-style missiles at a larger ship approaching behind the destroyers, ignoring the crippled ships completely. Each missile slightly rotated its thrust cone to change its direction mid-flight.
“What the hell are they doing?” Alex ran his hand through his hair.
“Jack, target the incoming pods. Alert for possible bording action.”
Jack took control of a decoupler, firing at the incoming pods. The other
ships took their orders from his actions and did the same. Due to the pods’
erratic flight paths, it wasn’t easy plucking them out of space. Nearly half
the pods collided with the four UEF ships, embedding themselves deep
into the hull.
“Sir, we were hit with seven pods. The Nuboko was hit with thirteen
and broke into three sections.”
Alex’s hands instinctively covered his face and as he wiped the defeat off
it. He watched the four missiles hit their target, causing significant critical damage to the enemy ship. “Damn it, cancel simulation!”
Jack sat back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling.
No one on the bridge said anything. A moment later, Lanora confer-
ence-called the ships’ Captains and linked them together on the viewscreen.
Their faces showed signs of despair.
“Why aren’t we allowin
g the simulation to continue?” Jerome asked
with arms out to each side. “The fight isn’t over yet.”
“Jerome, each pod has three Zorn drones in them. You might be able
to fight off one pod, maybe two if you got lucky. At eight, they outnumber
the marines you have onboard. It’s a lost cause.”
“We’ve got to find a way to prevent them from reaching our ships,”
Brandy said.
“One laser turret per ship isn’t enough. We need more of them.” Cindy
reviewed battle footage on her command chair, her fingers steepled in front
of her lips.
“If they could track and fire on targets independently, rather than
at my control, that would be a huge combat multiplier,” Jack whispered
behind Alex.
“What if we install several laser turrets on the Destiny and let them act as a defense screen to the pods?”
72
“Ha…Like an anti-aircraft ship…but for pods…and in space,”
Alex mused.
“Destiny, the anti-pod ship,” Mason chuckled from his screen.
“What is up with the rail cannon? It didn’t look like it was causing
much damage.”
“Well, our simulation showed the rounds completely penetrated the
ship and exited the other side, while hardly slowing down. It seems they
didn’t hit any critical systems, and the Zorn can survive in the vacuum of
space, so it might not be as effective as we imagined.” Cindy offered a view
of the large unclassified vessel, three holes penetrating the front of the hull.
“True, but keep in mind that in this scenario, the armada started nearly
on top of us. We can begin launching rounds at the enemy fleet up to a
day before we get into this kind of combat range.” Brandy smirked into
the camera.
“Captain, perhaps you could let your pilots attempt to evade the pods
next time. We sat there like sitting targets,” Fena said from Cindy’s bridge.
“Good idea,” Alex and Cindy said at the same time.
“Alex, you sure you don’t want your old ship back? I wouldn’t mind
raining death from our galactic sniper cannon.”
Alex smiled and opened his mouth to reply. The bridge turned bright
red, and an alarm sounded. Via the conference link, he could tell all the
ships were experiencing the same alarm.
“Sir message from UEF, Zorn drones sighted in Peru.”
“Must be the ones that came down in the first attack. I wondered what
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