The Fight for Britannia

by Saxon Andrew

  “I’m so sorry, Grady.”

  Grady jerked his head around to her, “And where did you come up with reading lips?!”

  Taffy kept her head down as she answered, “My father hired a tutor to teach me how to do it when I was eight. That’s why he always insisted that I go with him to every event. He had me read the lips of those in attendance to find out if any of them were critical of him or were planning something to harm his financial empire. That was part of the reason I ran away. I’ve seen him ruin anyone that I reported to him. I couldn’t do it anymore.”

  Grady released a heavy sigh and turned his chair to her, “Look at me!” Taffy turned her chair to him but kept her head down. “I SAID LOOK AT ME!” Taffy raised her eyes and he saw her fear in them. “Right now, you’re thinking that I’m going to drop you off on Britannia with the survivors, aren’t you?” Taffy nodded slightly. Grady shook his head, “I don’t exactly know when it happened, Taffy, but somewhere along the line, I found that I love you. The thing that has caused my anger is not that you kept information from me but that I took you into a situation where you could have been tortured and killed. That has caused me extreme fear about what could have happened and I’m furious you allowed me to go blindly in where it could have happened. I still love you even though I’m furious about what you allowed to take place. You are allowing fear to rule your life and that needs to end now! I can tell you that your fear of me leaving you is groundless, but I can’t make you believe it; only you can do that. If you aren’t able to overcome your fear and be a full member of a team with me, then we don’t stand much of a chance of making this work. Do you understand?” Taffy no longer saw anger in his eyes; tenderness had replaced it. She nodded. Grady sighed and turned his chair around to the console.

  “Grady.” Grady sighed, and Taffy said, “You’ve never told me you love me.”

  Grady kept his eyes on the monitor and replied in a soft voice, “Any idiot could see it.”

  “But I’ve never seen love from anyone but my mother.”

  Grady turned to her, “I can see you love me, Taffy; your words have confirmed it on several occasions. Love is not that hard to see, Taffy. You know it when you see it.”

  Taffy nodded slightly, “You’re right; my fear has ruled me. I wanted so much to trust you but just couldn’t make myself do it. Every time I tried, the way you sneered at me when I first met you kept entering my mind.”

  Grady released a heavy sigh, “I know I have responsibility in what has happened. I was arrogant, judgmental, and thought I was all that, when I wasn’t. Perhaps the damage I caused in the beginning is too much for you overcome. I am sorry for what I did, Taffy. You didn’t deserve it.”

  “I just didn’t want to make you angry if I disagreed with you, Grady.”

  Grady snorted, “After what you’ve just demonstrated, I need to know if you disagree. You were wrong about who the brain of this outfit is.”

  Taffy stared at Grady and said, “I will not give into my fear again. I do love you and I will not allow myself to mess this up. I need you more than you know.”

  Grady extended his arms and Taffy came over and sat down in his lap. She put her head on his shoulder and sighed, “This is my home…and where I belong.” Grady held her gently and they were silent for a long moment. Then Taffy said, “You might be wrong about Earth sending a fleet to Britannia.”

  Grady leaned back and saw her eyes were closed, “Oh?”

  Taffy snuggled in closer and sighed before continuing, “The aliens are not attacking the survivors because they want to capture the Rabbit. Earth is going to run head-on into the aliens and will not be able to take control of Britannia as long as they are threatened by the aliens attacking their ships if they try. Either way, the survivors should be ok until either Earth or the aliens win the conflict that’s about to kick off.”

  “But the survivors will have to deal with the eventual winner of the conflict and they’ll either be killed or enslaved, depending on which side wins.”

  Taffy nodded, and Grady sighed. Taffy sat up in his lap and said, “There’s more, Grady.”

  “What else is there?” Grady asked shaking his head.

  “You saw that Commodore was relieved that Britannia’s fleet had been destroyed, right?” Grady nodded. “Earth views the colony ships that left thousands of years ago to be a possible threat. If the other two colony ships didn’t destroy the data banks and kept the information about Earth, how would their development have differed from Britannia’s?” Grady thought about it and his eyes widened. Taffy nodded, “They would have started preparing for a future confrontation with Earth immediately. They wouldn’t have separated into warring factions and would have worked together to be ready if Earth’s warships showed up. Those colonies might be what we need to save the survivors.”

  “But we have no idea where those colonies are located!” Grady saw Taffy smile. “Do you have a clue on where they are?”

  “I believe the three colony ships went in different directions to enhance their chances of surviving if Earth came looking for them. Since the Britannia was the first to launch and went straight toward the core of the galaxy, the other two would not move in that direction. They also wouldn’t head out toward the edge of the galaxy.”

  “Why do you say that?” Grady asked.

  “Earth is located about two-thirds of the distance out from the center of the galaxy. There’s not enough room out toward the edge of the galaxy to put a lot of distance from Earth. I believe they must have gone in opposite directions on the spiral arm Earth is in. Pick a direction and use the same process you used to find Earth.”

  Grady pulled Taffy back in his arms, “You are amazing.”

  Taffy closed her eyes and softly said, “Two good things happened because we went to Earth.” Grady waited, and she added, “First, Earth sent a fleet out to Britannia and the survivors might live a little longer as a result. Second, you told me you loved me. Of the two, the second one is the most important to me.”

  Grady pulled her closer as the Rex Rabbit flew across the galaxy at an incredible speed. They passed the Earth fleet and Grady turned off the alarm, he had something more important to do as he and Taffy finally found each other.

  Chapter Eleven

  Grady saw Taffy enter the bridge carrying a bag of chips. She handed them to him and smiled. He looked at her and shook his head, “You need to get dressed.”

  Taffy looked down at herself, “You don’t like the way I look?”

  “Quite the contrary, I find it distracting. It’s hard to focus when you’re dressed like that.” Taffy smiled and kissed him on the cheek, before she turned and headed toward the corridor. Grady looked over his shoulder, “We should be arriving at Britannia in a couple of hours.” Taffy stopped and turned back to Grady. He saw her expression and asked, “Is something bothering you?”

  “Grady, the commander of that alien formation just out from Britannia must know that the Rabbit is faster and more maneuverable than the ships they command, right?” Grady nodded. “If you were in that commander’s place, how would you go about disabling or capturing the Rabbit?”

  Grady thought about it and replied, “I’d need more ships to pull that off.”

  “We’ve been absent for a while, how do you know more ships haven’t been called in while we were gone?”

  Grady reached forward, pulled the thruster handle back, as he turned off the FTL drive, and said, “Go get dressed; we’ll discuss this when you come back.” Taffy nodded and left the bridge. A few minutes later she returned wearing her flight-suit pants and a tee-shirt. Grady shook his head, “That’s really not a lot better. Taffy, you can’t tell me that with your skills with a sewing machine that you can’t alter your flight suits to fit you.”

  Taffy giggled and responded, “I like the way you look at me.”

  Grady rolled his eyes, “An occasion might arise where I don’t want you showing anything off to someone else, like that Commodore we ran into.
He couldn’t take his eyes off you and I have to say it ticked me off.”

  Taffy sighed, “I’ll alter them and wear them on the bridge.”

  Grady shook his head, “Boy, do I have mixed emotions about that.”

  Taffy giggled again, “Thank you! However, you’re right; I need to dress appropriately when on the bridge.” Taffy’s expression turned serious, “What are you going to do about the possibility of more alien ships being brought in?” Grady hesitated, and Taffy added, “You know if you use the scanner, the aliens will detect it.” Grady nodded and studied the image of Britannia he had pulled up on the monitor. Taffy watched him and pressed, “I’ll ask you again, if you were commanding those alien ships, what would you do?”

  “If getting the Rabbit is as important as I think it is to the aliens, I’d bring in enough ships to set up an ambush just outside the range of our scanners.”

  “We didn’t use our scanners when we attacked them; how would they know how far to set the ambush up?”

  “They’ll take a guess and move far enough out from the planet that we wouldn’t detect them. I think they’d assume that we wouldn’t see them fifty-million miles out from Britannia.”

  “That’s a rather long distance, wouldn’t you say.”

  “Yes and no,” Grady replied. “It is a long way out but not so far that they couldn’t jump us in a few moments using their stardrives once one of the alien ships close to Britannia detected us.”

  “So, how do we find out?”

  Grady stared at the monitor and said, “Computer, I’m going to fly sixty-million miles out from Britannia and I want you to use the optical system to see if there are any shadows being cast by objects closer to the planet. Disregard all planets and other recorded objects between the ship and the star. Notify me immediately if you detect anything.” Grady saw a green light illuminate on the console telling him the computer was following his instructions. It was confirmed a moment later as the optical system activated.

  Grady activated the FTL drive and flew at high-speed toward Britannia. Sixty-million miles out he changed course and moved in a circle keeping the distance from the planet constant. A few moments passed, and they heard the computer’s mechanical voice, “One shadow detected…three shadows detected…six shadows detected…ten shadows detected…”

  Grady flew away from Britannia and quickly said, “Stop search. Analyze your findings and tell me what those shadows are.”

  “They are the exact size of the warships that attacked Britannia’s cities and the ships in the alien formation you attacked.”

  “Based on the number you detected, estimate the number of those shadows that would be surrounding Britannia if they were uniformly distributed around the planet.”

  “Four thousand if the distribution is uniform,” the computer replied.

  Grady’s eyes narrowed, and he released a breath, “If Earth’s fleet rushes in to the planet, there’s a good chance every ship will be destroyed.”

  “Grady, if that happens, the aliens may go ahead and kill all the survivors on Britannia and focus on finding where the fleet they destroyed came from.”

  Grady snorted and looked at Taffy, “Much as I hate to do this, I’m going to have to warn them.” He looked at Taffy, “Go put a flight suit on.” Taffy nodded and ran off the bridge as Grady turned the Rabbit and headed away from Britannia toward the warships coming from Earth. She arrived on the bridge and Grady’s eyes narrowed, “That flight suit fits you.”

  Taffy lowered her head into her shoulders, “I altered them a while back.”

  Grady smiled, “You like the way I look at you.” Taffy raised her head and giggled. Grady activated the Rabbit’s scanner and a day later detected warships moving at high-speed toward them. He turned out of the path of the incoming warships and activated the communicator.

  “Do you think they’ll be using that frequency?” Taffy asked.

  “I know that in the Union’s Navy, all the ranking officers used a common frequency to communicate with the senior officers under their command. That commodore was using this frequency, so I’m guessing it will also be used by the commander of that fleet.” Taffy shrugged, and Grady pressed the send button on the communicator.

  A man appeared on the monitor and his eyes were narrowed as he asked, “Just who are you?”

  “I’m the one that went to Earth and told the commodore about the aliens attacking my home world.” The man’s eyes narrowed some more, and Grady smiled, “We determined that our welcome on Earth wasn’t as warm as we thought, so we cut our trip short.”

  “Why are you contacting me?”

  “Actually, I’ve really thought about not doing it after we discovered what was planned for us on Earth, but…” Grady paused and then said, “I don’t take kindly to aliens attacking humans. You’re headed into a trap and I suggest you turn around.”

  Grady swore the man’s eyes couldn’t get any narrower, but somehow, they did. “What are you talking about?”

  “There are more than four-thousand alien warships surrounding the planet you’re headed toward and most of them are powered down and hidden about fifty-million-miles out from the planet. If you insist on rushing in anyway, I highly recommend you leave a couple of ships behind to go back to Earth and inform them about how your fleet was destroyed.”

  “Why should I believe you?!”

  “Don’t. But I do recommend leaving a couple of your ships behind to avoid Earth not knowing how your fleet was lost. Either way, Tah-Dah.” Grady shut down the communicator and turned the Rabbit away from the fleet.

  “What are they going to do?” Taffy asked.

  “He’s not going to simply leave a few ships behind. He will send some ships in ahead of the fleet to see if there is a danger around the planet.”

  “And…”

  “I’m not sure. If he decides to withdraw, we are going to be forced to attack some more of the alien warships.”

  “And if he doesn’t withdraw?”

  “We’ll find out just how aggressive Earth is. He’ll send a ship back to Earth requesting orders and Earth will either recall his fleet or send reinforcements.”

  “What do you think they’ll do, Grady?”

  “You’ve seen how Earth treats its population. They are cruel and use overpowering force to keep them under control. I also believe that the reason they were able to launch that fleet so quickly was that Earth has run out of civilizations to conquer. They’ll jump on this opportunity like a lizard on a bug. Why have a huge navy if you don’t use it? You know how many warships around Earth powered up to chase us and I suspect we didn’t see nearly all that were there. This is all pure speculation, but the evidence seems to support them not backing off.”

  Taffy raised a shoulder and said, “Well, your first prediction just proved true.” Grady looked at the image from the optical monitor and saw ten warships move out at high-speed as the Earth fleet came to a stop.

  • • •

  Admiral Martov watched the warships leave the fleet on his monitor and said to his Executive Officer, “Keep me informed on what happens.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  • • •

  The Banshee was the first ship to leave and it went to maximum speed toward the distant planet. Captain Yolie was determined to arrive ahead of the others and get the praise for his actions. He was on the short-list for promotion and this should guarantee his getting command of a fleet. Three-hours later, he saw the planet growing larger and he heard his sensor officer shout, “SIR, I HAVE THIRTY BOGEYS POWERING UP AND MOVING IN ON THE SHIP!!”

  Yolie jerked his head to the wall-monitor and saw the attackers had surrounded his ship and there was no escape. “NOTIFY THE ADMIRAL!! ALL WEAPONS ARE FREE TO FIRE!!”

  The Banshee turned about and tried to fight its way out of the ships attacking it. It fired every blaster and launched a huge volley of anti-ship missiles. Two of the attackers were hit and exploded but the Banshee was hit by fifty blaster beams. The r
ear of the ship was blown away and Captain Yolie decided he wasn’t going to get that fleet after all. A moment later, the rest of the Banshee went up in a giant explosion.

  • • •

  “Admiral, the Banshee is under attack by thirty- warships. It’s surrounded and has been critically damaged.”

  “Recall the other ships!” The XO nodded and Martov asked, “Were the other ships detected?”

  “No, Sir. The Banshee rushed in ahead of them at maximum speed. Sir the Banshee has just sent a destroy signal.”

  “Order the fleet to reverse course and move away from that planet’s system.” The Executive Officer pressed his communicator and began issuing instructions. The Admiral suspected that if there was a large alien fleet present in that system, they would want to know where that single warship came from. Moving the fleet away would prevent them from finding it.

  • • •

  Grady saw the distant explosion on the optical monitor and knew that one of the Earth Warships had been destroyed. Taffy turned the optical camera back to the fleet from Earth and saw it reversing course. “Are they backing down, Grady?”

  “I suspect they’re backing away to await their orders. We’ll find out soon enough; keep them on the optical monitor.” Grady stared at the monitor and said, “Did you notice that man couldn’t take his eyes off you?”

  Taffy giggled, “I did.”

  “Just checking.”

  “Grady, what do you think the aliens will do?”

  Grady turned to Taffy, “The first thing they’ll do is start a search for where that single warship came from. It’s unusual for a single warship to be out on a mission alone. The Earth Commander moving his fleet away will extend the time that search will take. Failing to find any other ships, I believe the alien commander will do exactly what the Earth Commander did; they’ll send a ship back asking for orders.”

  “They won’t attack Britannia.”

  “I suspect the alien commander has persuaded their leadership that the capture of our ship is far more important than finishing off the planet. They won’t attack without approval from their leaders.”