by Doug Farren
Captain Zatch’s mind was racing. He would never have thought that his first meeting with the enemy would have started off like this. He needed some time to think. “Follow me,” he said. “The control room is just down the passage. We can sit and talk.”
Stricklen carefully looked around as he followed the Captain. The passageways were larger than those of Human ships, but then again, the Chroniech were a larger race. The lighting was normal and the temperature felt a bit cool but not uncomfortably so. The gravity was a bit stronger indicating that the Chroniech came from a more massive planet. The ship’s construction appeared to be very similar to something the Alliance would have built.
The control room was located at the end of the short passageway. The Captain keyed it opened and waited for the door to slide to the left. Captain Zatch indicated one of the three chairs and then sat down in another. It was apparent from the layout of the control room that the ship was designed to be operated by anywhere between one and three individuals.
As he settled into his chair, Captain Zatch asked, “Are you the same person who captained your ship when it entered our space several years ago?”
“I am,” Stricklen replied. Thinking he should explain he continued, “I retired from the space force after our first war. I was asked to return to active duty following the discovery of your attempts to breach the Kyrra barrier. I assumed command of the Dragon again after the Captain was killed by one of your cloaked hunter-killers.”
Zatch nodded his head in understanding then went to the heart of what mattered most, “Why did you stop to help one of our passenger liners?”
“They were unarmed civilians,” Stricklen answered matter of factly as if it was common knowledge.
“They were Chroniech,” Zatch replied. “If the ship had been yours I would have left them to die. Why keep them alive only to have them fight you later? It would not matter if they were civilian or not. No Chroniech would have helped them.”
Stricklen felt hatred and anger starting to rear its ugly head. He took a deep breath to calm himself. “That point was brought up when we encountered the ship,” he admitted. “Some of us would have done that, but most people, including myself, distinguish between combatants and noncombatants in time of war. Civilian ships may be disabled and captured, but the killing of civilians, especially children, during any war is done only as a last resort. We will even spare the lives of military personnel if they lay down their weapons and agree to be captured.”
Zatch was thunderstruck. “You would spare the lives of your enemy? Why?”
“Because we believe that life itself is sacred. Even the lives of our enemies. All wars eventually end and enemies eventually reconcile their differences and learn to live together in peace.”
“A preposterous assumption. Which race of your Alliance is the master race? Is it the Kyrra?”
Ken had to think about that for a moment. “We have no master race. All races are equal.”
“You are not ruled by the Kyrra?”
“The Kyrra are our allies. We are friends. Is this why you wanted to speak to me? To ask me questions concerning the Alliance? I find it hard to believe that you would want to talk to me just because I saved the lives of a few civilians.”
Zatch took a deep breath. He was amazed he found it easy to speak to this enemy of his people. But what he was about to say was not easy for him. “My three wives and eight children were aboard that ship. You saved their lives. Among Chroniech such an act cannot go unrecognized. I am honor bound to recognize what you did for my family and to ask if there is anything I can do for you.”
The above was a rough translation of the ancient ritualistic acknowledgment of an honor debt spoken by the one owing the debt to the one to whom the debt was owed. The normal response was to decline to request anything and since this type of exchange had been going on for thousands of years the standard reply had been condensed into a single word. It was a word Stricklen had no knowledge of.
Stricklen did not answer immediately. He could see by the Captain's body language that what he had just done had been incredibly difficult for him. Knowing what he did in the short time he had spoken to Arukt Chaktekt, Stricklen came to realize that he could literally ask for almost anything and Captain Zatch would be honor bound to do his best to give it to him. Honor, Stricklen had learned, played a huge part in Chroniech society. Stricklen saw an opportunity and his brain was running at warp speed trying to figure out a way to make the best of this opportunity.
Captain Zatch, trying to put himself at ease, broke the momentary silence. A question had been burning in his mind since he had first met Stricklen. “It is obvious that you have met a Chroniech before. How is this possible?”
Despite the warning Arukt Chaktekt had given him several times Stricklen smiled. Ken had always had a huge smile and what he was about to share with Zatch was, to him, quite funny. To a Chroniech, the display of teeth was a sign of aggression and a thousand years of reflex kicked in.
* * * * *
Admiral Brin waited until the very last moment. He even retransmitted his original message hoping against all hope that the Chroniech would not push him into doing something that would haunt him for the rest of his life. But, the Chroniech fleet continued to advance toward Almaranus.
For a moment, rage clouded the Admiral's thoughts. “How could they be so stupid?” he thought. Without thinking, his finger smashed down on a key opening the communications channel he had been using in a vain attempt to warn off the Chroniech fleet. The light had barely come on indicating an open circuit when the Admiral practically yelled out, “Idiots! You have just signed the death warrant of billions of your people!”
The outburst drained him of emotion. Closing the open channel the Admiral turned to his keyboard. Feeling his heart sink and fighting the nausea that had started, the Admiral leaned forward and typed a command into the computer. Far out in space, a Mishpa class interceptor received the order and vanished from Alliance space. It reappeared thousands of light years away deep in Chroniech space.
As it had been with Bantrich, the ship paused in its attack to gather the information it needed to calculate the location of its next jump. Twelve minutes, later the jump drive activated and the ship popped into space 341,884 kilometers from the planet. Six point one seconds later it entered the target’s atmosphere.
The fireball instantly vaporized two major cities and the surrounding countryside. Hundreds of millions of Chroniech had their lives snuffed out without them even realizing it. As the firestorm raced across the surface, tens of millions more perished. For some, the first indication of approaching disaster was the incredibly bright flash that lit up the sky turning night into day. Seconds later the wall of fire turned them to ash.
For others farther away from the blast their first indication was the sudden loss of all power as the massive EMP overloaded and destroyed virtually every electronic device. Even the backup systems failed to switch on. While they searched for the cause of the power failure they died from the destructive effects of the blast wave. If that didn’t kill them, they died when the building they were in collapsed when the earthquake caused by the hammer blow to the planet quickly followed.
Within thirty seconds over 2 billion lives had ended. As the earthquake rolled across the planet more died. The point directly opposite this planet’s ground zero was ocean. When the expanding seismic shock wave reached the other side of the planet and thrust it up nobody was there to see it. The quick up-thrusting of the crust displaced hundreds of millions of tons of water.
Two hours later, the first many monstrous tsunamis struck land. The wave towered over the coastal city buildings and knocked them flat when they struck. The damage extended inland for nearly a hundred kilometers. What the earthquakes had not destroyed, the waves battered down.
Three hours after detonation, the surface of the planet was hidden by the sickly brown poisonous atmosphere. Those few that had survived found life unbearable as the very
air they breathed burned their lungs. Death was slow.
* * * * *
Stricklen’s accidental and totally innocent showing of his teeth when he smiled had triggered an instinctual reaction in Captain Zatch. Had this meeting taken place a few thousand years earlier Ken’s jugular vein would have been ripped from his neck. Civilized living had tempered the modern Chroniech response to such a threat.
Instead of attacking, Captain Zatch leaned forward, bared his own teeth, and raised his right hand with claws fully extended as if ready to strike. Stricklen instantly realized his mistake and closed his mouth. Not knowing how to defuse the tension, he did the first thing that came to mind: He extended his arms forearm up and waited.
Zatch looked at Ken’s arms and started to laugh. A Chroniech laugh was much like a Human’s although it was done without exposing the whites of their teeth and was deeper in tone.
Lowering his arm and settling back into his chair, Zatch said, “If you were Chroniech, I would take you for a fool. But you are not and because of that I am forced to conclude that you are either very brave or very stupid. Whoever taught you our traditions did a poor job.”
“I didn't have much time to learn,” Stricklen replied still trying to calm his racing heart. “I was warned by Arukt Chaktekt not to smile. For Humans, a smile that shows one’s teeth is a sign of happiness and not a challenge.”
Captain Zatch was about to say something but stopped as he replayed Stricklen's last comments in his head. He recognized the name Ken had used. He searched his memories for a moment until it came to him.
“I have heard of Arukt Chaktekt.” Zatch said. “His friends claimed to have lived among the Kyrra for a brief period of time. Eventually, they recanted and said it was just a story they had made up to gain popularity but nobody has seen Arukt Chaktekt since. How did you meet him?”
“The story is true,” Ken replied. “He is indeed living with the Kyrra. I spoke with him less than an hour ago.”
Zatch was at a loss for words. He had contacted this Human to satisfy honor and in the short time they had talked had learned things that had turned his world upside down. A Chroniech living as an equal among the Kyrra? A race that spared the lives of their enemy? The Kyrra and the races of the Alliance working together as equals? It was almost impossible to comprehend.
Ken took the opportunity to speak. “Captain, I do not know much about your people. But I do know that you and I seem to have at least a few things in common. A moment ago you asked me what you could do for me. I believe there is something you can do if it is within your means.”
Zatch looked at Stricklen and seemed to peer through his eyes and into his soul. It was an uncomfortable and penetrating look. Zatch had no idea what Ken might be about to ask. Part of him feared what this Human, who understood so little of Chroniech tradition, would ask of him. He braced himself and replied, “Ask what you will of me.”
Stricklen considered his reply very carefully before speaking. “I wish to ask one question first, and I would like an honest answer. Why are your people at war with the Alliance?”
“You are a sentient race. It is a known fact that two sentient species cannot coexist as equals. One will always dominate the other and the other will always serve the dominant species. We will never be dominated again. We eliminate those that are a threat to us.”
Zatch had thought that this would have been obvious and it showed in the tone of his voice. Unfortunately, the translator did a poor job of rendering the subtle tones necessary to convey this level of information.
Stricklen considered the answer for a moment then said, “I would guess that in your society the proper response to your question would be to decline asking for anything. However, these are extraordinary circumstances.”
Lifting his arm he pointed out the wristcom. “This is a communications device. My ship has been monitoring this conversation.”
“My own ship informed me of it,” Zatch replied. “I would have been suspicious if it had not.”
“Dragon this is Stricklen, I am safe over here. I’m shutting down the wristcom for a moment so Captain Zatch and myself can have a private conversation. Do you copy?”
“I am not in favor of your doing so sir, but you are the Captain.” The voice that came through the earpiece was that of the executive officer.
Ken depressed one of the tiny buttons on the unit then said, “It is now off. Would you confirm?”
Captain Zatch spoke a command to his own ship and received an instant reply in his own earpiece. “My ship has confirmed that you are no longer in contact with your ship. Why is this necessary?”
“In order for this to work, nobody other than yourself and I can know of what we are about to do.”
“And what is that?” Zatch asked suddenly suspicious.
“We are on opposite sides of this war,” Stricklen explained. “We are enemies. Yet, here we sit talking to each other as equals. This fact alone tells me there is hope. While we sit here and talk, our two societies are at war. Thousands are dying with each breath we take. We are going to try to end it.”
Zatch was shocked to his very core. This Human had to be insane. They were both Captains in their respective space forces. It was an impossible request. “What you ask is impossible and I cannot comply.”
Stricklen, however, was not crazy. In fact, he had come up with what he thought was a brilliant solution to ending the war. Without flinching he told Batack how he intended to accomplish his goal. It took some arguing, but in the end, Captain Zatch agreed to the plan and as he did he found himself actually beginning to like Ken.
Enlightenment
After considering everything involved in a space battle it ultimately comes down to firepower. If your weapons are not as powerful as those of your enemy’s, then the only way for you to win is to have more ships. Unfortunately for the Alliance, the Chroniech not only had better weapons but they also had more ships.
The Alliance had amassed a huge fleet to defend Almaranus. Two juggernauts along with 2,243 warships stood ready to deal out death to any Chroniech ship that crossed their path. These ships were backed up by 8,080 very large automated defense stations with another 31 jump drive stations waiting outside the system. Another 7,322 of the old original defense stations were also still in service. Twenty-one, cloaked, Kyrra defense stations were also ready to pounce.
If the Chroniech managed to get past these, they faced the wrath of the planetary energy cannons. These guns had been beefed up and improved since the beginning of the war and were powerful enough to take out a Tholtaran juggernaut at optimum range.
The Chroniech, however, were determined to wipe out this Alliance stronghold. They realized the Alliance would defend Almaranus with every ship at their disposal. In fact, the Chroniech were counting on it. A win here would cripple the Alliance making the rest of the conquest easy. To that end their fleet consisted of 3,533 ships, most of them heavy combat vessels.
The Chroniech fleet had ignored the warnings and continued to approach Almaranus. As in previous battles the Alliance’s first attack came in the form of a massive wave of missiles. The Chroniech deployed their screen of nuclear warheads which eliminated 80% of them. Six Chroniech ships were hit and destroyed while two were damaged. The rest continued to advance.
Before coming within weapons range of the defending fleet, six Chroniech cruisers suddenly came under fire from kinetic energy weapons. Twelve Lamaltan planetary assault platforms had been hastily restored and were now firing into the Chroniech fleet from behind the defense forces. The fact that the Chroniech ships had been coming in on a straight line trajectory had made the targeting easy.
Quickly realizing their mistake, the attacking ships began to alter course. Four more ships including a super battleship were hit and destroyed. The Chroniech came within range and began firing back. The real battle had begun.
As the two fleets began to engage, 31 automated defense stations suddenly appeared at the edge of the invading fleet
. The jump locations had been chosen to put the defense stations within firing range of several Chroniech ships. But, the Chroniech would have to break formation in order to concentrate enough firepower to take the stations down.
These were no ordinary defense stations either. All of them had originally stood guard over the home planet of the Tholtarans. They were armed like no other defense station in the Alliance. Tholtarans were known for their military hardware. They built the biggest and the most powerful ships of any member of the Galactic Alliance. These incredibly powerful battle stations bristled with weapons.
This gave the Alliance a momentary advantage. The defense stations were able to target several Chroniech ships with their massive Kyrra enhanced energy cannons while the Chroniech took the time to bring in additional firepower. Each station targeted two or three Chroniech warships. Such was the firepower of those stations that all of the targeted ships were quickly destroyed.
Energy beams, even the gigantic ones of the automated defense stations, took time to burn their way through a ship. The bigger the ship, the longer it took to kill. The second the target’s shield collapsed the job of completing that ship’s destruction was assigned to secondary weapons allowing the main batteries to switch to a fresh target. Some ships required a bit more time as their secondary generators took over for the destroyed main generator.
The Chroniech quickly brought additional ships to bear against the defense stations and soon their shields, powerful as they were, were overloaded. The Chroniech had developed a useful technique which they now employed. While the main weapons kept the shield fully engaged and began to burn their way to the shield generator the secondary weapons targeted the external weapon arrays. Without a shield to stop them, the secondary weapons made short work of the station’s ability to fight back. As soon as he defense station was no longer a threat it was left to lick its wounds.
Shortly after the appearance of the Tholtaran battle stations, the Kyrra defense stations decloaked and opened fire. Powered by a single matter/antimatter reactor, each station mounted an FTL enhanced super weapon of immense power. The beam cut through even the strongest Chroniech shield and relentlessly burrowed to the core of the doomed warship. Once the shield was down, the beam wandered over the surface of the ship converting it into a grotesque collection of melted debris.
