Earth on Target (Survival Amidst the Stars)

by Angel Bright

  Rage ignited in his eyes, but he still didn’t answer.

  “Where is your cloning system?”

  He emitted a low growl.

  This was his end.

  He had sentenced himself.

  I turned the rings, which were made as per Hasterazis’s model, with the crystals inside my palms and directed my palms against each other. A blue arc shined between them—quite flashy.

  A voice sounded in my head. “Next time, I’ll destroy you!”

  “There will not be a next time,” I said.

  “Quite the contrary. The new clone is ready.”

  “Have you not realized that with each subsequent reproduction, biological errors accumulate, and you lose your powers and abilities? The next time, you will be even more limited in your power. You were not created immortal for no reason. You are unique.”

  I spread my arms and pushed to the astonished creature the blue arc, which immediately shrank in the shape of an orb. He dropped to the floor, but the blue sphere followed him, and he walked through it.

  What a pity.

  I did not have time for lengthy psychological tricks.

  13 Testing of Tempor One and First Clashes with Invaders—Insidious Injury!

  I teleported to asteroid number NT361288, selected by the Armaments Group.

  We began reviewing the proposed targets in the asteroid belt and reviewed the data: description, dimensions, weight, ore deposits, peculiarities, distances, direct visibility, participation in inertial balance, crystals deposit, direct inspection, and so on.

  I went out to the rock platform we had set as the basis of the new weapon. I was fascinated by the greatness of the sight that opened before my eyes.

  In the distance, the entire arc of the sky was dotted with moving objects.

  Huge stone mountains rotated in a slow, graceful dance—mobile among the mobile. Among these asteroids, two were marked as our targets on our radar screens. We had installed high-resolution surveillance cameras on their neighboring asteroids. We knew what to expect and wanted to observe the phenomenon in the greatest detail.

  The very phenomenon as a physical process was completely unknown to me, and we had a chance to watch it clearly and closely. The first aim was at a far distance of one billion kilometers.

  I ensconced myself behind one of the rocks nearby and placed the command terminal in front of me.

  On a small screen above the terminal with different speeds, a dozen sets of numbers were changing, informing me about the coordinates, distance, mass and density of the target, and other minor details defining the zone of compatibility. I was waiting for the setting.

  From one of my breast pockets, I pulled out and connected a tiny electronic block to the computer. It was the program for capturing and automatic tracking of the target. This weapon had tremendous destructive power, and the parts of its command block should not remain gathered in the same place for an unnecessarily long time. Another screen showed a miniature target circle.

  I pressed the Destroy button, and the circle moved forward almost imperceptibly, setting the distance to the target.

  I stuck tightly the index finger of my right hand into a special opening, and with my left hand I pressed the Volley button. A small window immediately illuminated with the words volley realized.

  Among the many asteroids, we had hidden the base of our strongest weapon. Asteroid NT161267 had sheltered the huge jaws of Tempor One along with its guiding motors and setting and navigation systems. The place was well suited because of the proximity of its vast crystalline core, through which in a few seconds I could achieve a tremendous impulse power to use for significant offensive-defensive purposes. This power could not be absorbed or reflected by any protective screens. Once it was triggered, it became unstoppable.

  I continued the tests of my weapon by measuring the shortest-possible safe distance to the target. In one of the midsize asteroid blasts, an unbalance of the system occurred, and an uncontrollable rotation and collision of various cosmic bodies began. I spent a lot of strength and nerves for establishing a new balance in the increasing chaos. There was no way I could use the scientists around me; this extremely dangerous weapon system was not to be shared with them because of its uncontrollability and extreme range. In addition, a great disadvantage was the need for extremely precise coordinates of the target, and in the conditions of the deep space it was an unsolvable problem because of the lack of stationary objects. The only solution was marking the target with at least two marking adjacent systems also with constantly changing parameters but marking only one target point. I was working on the matter using the knowledge accumulated in the collisions between the cruisers of the star squadrons of warring planetary systems. I assigned some of this research to the military engineering teams in favor of the currently forming Star Fleet of the Earth Defense.

  Basic requirements included accuracy and small size of the targeting systems. We tested this novelty on the principle of trial and error in the solar system’s asteroid belt. This also required my constant presence in the area of testing. These activities among the lifeless rocks caused local perturbations, rotations, and collisions between the target and neighboring asteroids, which we calmed down after finishing the experiments.

  An emergency message arrived from one of the observation stations. Fewer than one hundred thousand kilometers from the control asteroid, a massive presence of armed starships was observed, and a battle with heavy weapons was raging. Radiation associated with the annihilation of large objects had been detected.

  Who was fighting there?

  There were no Earth ships there.

  I quickly teleported two groups of “eyes” to this area and begun calculating the probable target coordinates. They were too close to use Tempor One against them.

  We were detected fairly accurately. I had no doubt that our activity in this area had attracted unwanted attention. I gave a command to stop the tests and for an emergency gathering to exit the area. I received an image from the area of the armed confrontation, and my fears were fully confirmed. Four ships larger than our cruisers, arranged in a frontal formation, were breaking asteroids into atoms. Their weapons’ range was impressive.

  I could see a strong shine behind me. At that moment, something dazzled in front of me and formed a dim silhouette of a figure reaching toward me. I felt a strong pain in my chest and back. Another shine burst ahead, indicating the arrival of another attacker. I responded to the surprise attack almost instantaneously. I pronounced the control word, and the spell of illusion instantly worked. It was an illusion without consequences for them, but I gained time to go lower and bounce back to my hit right-hand side, and my holographic image transferred and entirely covered the figure of the attacker behind me. The other component of my defense composition was triggered; it was a real energy attack. But my real attack failed and was extinguished before my eyes. Still, the attacker in front of me was deceived and attacked my holographic image. He stabbed through it with a white blade and impaled his partner.

  I threw my “fishing net” on the uninjured attacker, sharply tightened its range, and simultaneously threw myself behind him while kicking his legs—or what I was hoping to be legs. I turned the direction of the illusions, and my holographic image bounced off to the right of the attacker. He hid behind a power shield but on the wrong side. I struck him with a rather powerful energy blow that pushed him on the stone surface, but a part of his energy shield was flashing beneath the net.

  I almost instinctively determined the power and vibration of his energy and fired a pair of Scorpions – a special mix of energy frequencies that destroyed his defense system. I left him unconscious, stuck to the surface of the asteroid, and attacked the second attacker across a wall of darkness that absorbed the emission of any limited energy. It was a type of weapon I had developed for protection in close-quarters combat. Being seriously injured, the second attacker lost track of me. I cut him in two.

  I was seriously
injured as well. I was still stable because of the strong flow of vital energy from the crystal core of the asteroid, but my rescue could not come from there.

  I began my treatment by determining the biological frequencies of the healthy and damaged parts of my body. This was the easiest part of the necessary conscious actions for my rescue, but I had no idea how to continue. I slowly increased the frequency characteristics of the damaged cells toward the frequencies of their healthy neighbors.

  Some steps took time, and I was forced to move forward very slowly and carefully. I was no longer able to follow the duration of each step, and it was possible for my body to be shut off for some time intervals necessary to bring the wounded cells closer to the normal biological rhythm of the surrounding normal cells. However, I reached a balance between the biological characteristics of the more serious injury.

  In one of the next lucid moments, I started the same procedure with the second injury, and there I collided with a magical defense blocking my efforts.

  The incisions would not close. The incision frequencies more easily reached the total frequency balance of the healthy cells of the injured organ, but after releasing the control of my mind, they were again divided into the original incision. I scanned the frequency balance of the entire injured organ and found nothing. There was some energy interference. The scanning of my whole body took plenty of time. I found my previous omissions and activated my bloodstream. My body warmed and stirred only after my intervention. This occurred over and over and with the same result. Even so, I again gained time for general strengthening.

  In one of my consecutive unsuccessful attempts, my gaze fell on a strange device that had fallen nearby. Its presence was explained only by the assassination attempt against me. A weak, bluish energy cone was drawn to me. With this device, they had hurt me in the back. I tossed it behind the rocks of the nearby asteroid horizon.

  Again, I fell asleep, and the nightmares came. My body was disintegrating, and its atoms were entering the stone-crystal structure of the asteroid. With the power of my will, I gathered my disintegrating body again, but immediately some force pressed me against the hard surface beneath me and started spreading me over it. I focused on absorbing the maximum amount of energy from the crystalline core of the asteroid, and then an excellent technique for releasing the accumulated tension came to my mind. I became aware of my own inner scream and managed to see the remnants of the rapidly expanding plasma globe coming from my dream. I moved my arms and legs in anticipation of the cutting pain through my hip, but it did not come. I straightened carefully to a sitting position. For a few moments, I tightened and relaxed the muscles of my troubled organs. It was as if my problems had been solved on their own, but powerful anxiety came over me.

  The attacker I had captured was gone.

  It was impossible!

  My fishing net still bulged as if someone were in it, but it was empty.

  I rolled it into a ball. I stretched it again and started looking for a gap or break in its power structure and discovered a lighted area. That’s where he had slipped away from with force. Brutal! Why with such a great loss of energy? I had left vulnerable sections for exploratory purposes, including research of capabilities, but my captive had not found them. Again, I received proof that the aliens could feel but not see the energy strings. But why had he not killed me while I had been unconscious?

  The only explanation was that he had suffered heavy injuries in the collision between us or from going through the net. Perhaps he saw me regain consciousness and feared a new clash. Or perhaps the plasma globe that was scattered in space contained his burnt remains. They had let me survive for the third time. With all my self-confidence and arrogance, I was surprised for the third time.

  I felt sick.

  The world began to bend in front of my eyes, and once again I clung to the rock surface.

  In my nightmare, I found myself in a huge command room. A large three-step pyramid was in the center, and I drifted through the air toward the center of its uppermost floor. Below me, arranged in a circle, stretched about a hundred workplaces wrapped in hologram projections of machines or space sectors of unfamiliar star systems. Two figures were following me, dressed in identical dark-green uniforms and military haircuts. I reached the platform at the top of the pyramid and landed smoothly in the central part. I immediately felt strong shocks while on the body of the huge spacecraft. Its armaments systems were running at full power, and they were firing intensely at someone in the area we were entering. On the wall of the corridor I read a sign: Fortress of Death. Just below the sign, a rectangular door was formed in which a vague silhouette stood. Simultaneously with his appearance, a greenish spectral sphere spread around the central part of the hall where I was. Its light was growing, and I found myself in its center.

  I instinctively raised my hands and triggered the portable MFF against the two poles of the sphere, and the emitted energy bursts made holes in it. The finishing circular swing of my arms formed my protective shield, and behind its cover, my attacking globe altered with sharp spikes. It swirled wildly and swiftly went with me in the direction of the emerging hunter. The initial intense quake was felt at the contact between the two energy spheres. There was a melting white light in the center, where I sent impulses with maximum energy saturation. I bounced back to the wall behind me and leaned to the place from where energy was flowing, charging me. My glowing protective ball had already penetrated the energy sphere and the wall behind it. It overcame the resistance to the attack and was destroying everything in its path to the star cruiser’s bow. To my left and right, the trapped sphere was decomposing into green rags by the extinguishing resonance of my Scorpions. I was not able to determine where the attacker-hunter had withdrawn to but…

  I jolted and was again on the rocky plateau of my asteroid. My consciousness had created some dream or vivid vision generated by my traumatized brain. Despite my hallucinations, I realized my attackers did not see the radiant form of energies but sensed the locations of charged energy objects, and they determined with sufficient precision where the possible target was. This allowed them to find me without direct visibility and behind solid barriers. This ability allowed them to organize surprising ambushes and traps in conditions convenient for them.

  I had an advantage, but it was also a fatal trap. I’d gotten out until now, thanks to my greater energy charge and efficiency and my ability to control energy collisions. The first magical object I encountered almost killed me. I was not prepared and did not cope with this. If at least one of them had been present with me, it would have been game over. My perpetual energy charge was a rescue for me but also unmasked me, like a lighthouse indicating a person was home who was the obstacle exciting the attackers’ hunting instincts. Come and try your luck, the lighthouse said.

  But what energy range was their sensitivity, and what was the limit of their protection beyond which they would overlook me? Could I move my energy charge into a vibrational area that was insensitive to them? This was within my abilities, and the Creator had given me that ability for a reason.

  Invisibility and baits—why not? I had active protection against them and in return I have painfully punished them for every attack. I worked on punishments for them, but for now I had succeeded only at close quarters. But their attacks were at the same distance, too. If I stung them, it would significantly reduce those attacks that traumatized me with the constant expectation of their surprise attacks.

  All their energy attacks took place in ranges from green to orange, and they all had a starting point and a direction aimed at the target. I knew the frequencies of their attacking energies, and I knew there were earthly guides with their precise enumeration.

  I came up with a simple solution.

  A powerful energy impulse transmitted in a directed counterattack would use the energy channel they created, and it would reach the source of the attacking impulse with minimal losses. I had planned to use this spectacular hit for a pl
anetary defense, but I could use it on a reduced scale. My laboratories would design and create crystals for every frequency I requested. And unlike living organisms, they could use the emitted energy of the attacking party to send back a paralyzing or destructive impulse. It was a powerful defensive capability.

  And I was almost ready with it.

  I teleported to my moon lab and assigned the task to the highly motivated scientists. I was able to adjust the force of the returned blow according to the mass of the used crystal. With all its power, the crystal automatically returned a much stronger impulse when a beam with its resonantly set frequency reached it. There was no need to direct and aim because the channel for this frequency was already open.

  I got a distress alert. A bit later, Earth stations started alerting us of received help signals emitted by our production stations located in the asteroid belt.

  I had overlooked the group of star cruisers destroying the asteroids.

  Our Earth Defense plans activated. The readiness lights of the various sectors of air and space defense on the portable display began to light up. The war was at our doorstep. We would not avoid it.

  I teleported to the battle center in the asteroid belt—my asteroid, number NT361291. As one of the most massive asteroids, but not as powerful as an energy source, it was a good bastion among our front posts.

  I had begun to get images from the “eyes” I had scattered among the attacked areas of the asteroid belt shortly before the direct attack on me. As expected, my observed area was empty save for clouds of dust with limited visibility. The dust clouds—containing billions of tons of dust—were rising and growing. This was a waste of energy and resources unlimited by reason in the midst of one of the most deserted areas of the solar system.

  I gave a command to collect the nano-cameras in the kernel to bring them closer to the crystal battle asteroid NT361288. On the display in front of me, the picture of the attacked area was shaping according to the summarized data sent by the surrounding asteroid settlements. I took the volumetric view of the space and got a real look at the upcoming combat.