Earth on Target (Survival Amidst the Stars)

by Angel Bright

  Earth was now intoxicated by the rapid development of science and technology, but would this aspiration survive when it reached the level of the Kerrani System?

  If I mastered Corba, I would be a small step away from the next level of cosmic civilization: mastering the energies of the stars.

  Were the time and effort I was expending as a nanny for the civilization of the solar system worth it? Was the great chance of this civilization to be burned up as Prima Davos? Was the work done until now and in the future worth it? Did not I give impetus to the complete destruction? Still, this was the basis on which I operated and a part of myself.

  My origin bound me inseparably with the solar system, and I had to join it with the galactic civilization as an equal.

  I went back again to the orbital docks and the space towns around Corba. The star cruisers being built there and our repair docks around Mars and Saturn were similar but incomparable in size. Still, every fifty-six months, we launched a repaired ship of Prima Davos or Corba. In fact, why did we hit those huge docks and the ships there that we destroyed?

  We had the strength to restore and defend them.

  I ordered the thousands of prisoners of war from the Corba fleet to gather on Mars in one city and to make an exact distribution of the survivors by ranks and specialties. They were to be distributed by districts and by origin from the five civilized planets of the Kerrani System.

  I teleported my minifrigate, Fearless, in the orbit around Corba. I was expecting a lively orbital presence of ships from colonized planets, auxiliary transports, and fleets of rescue organizations, but I found no signs of life in space and an orbit full of shipwrecks. The thinned lights of cities on the planet continued to shine, but we did not detect trajectories of launching or landing ships or shuttles. Even TV broadcasts were rare and short.

  In one of our orbits, we detected light rages and fires and sent a fighter to look at what was happening.

  We took a picture of a group of shuttles that were attacking a ground installation, met by a weak fire from a single ground battery. Extensive fires covered urban areas and several broad motorways crowded with vehicles, and the shuttles on top of them were sowing annihilation. I commanded our fighter to enter, bring order, and clear the area from the attacking shuttles. After a while, we found on the screen a dark silhouette of a grounded starship with an unknown structure. I sent two more fighters and a landing shuttle with our thirty marines, whom we had taken for other tasks. With united efforts, our trio of fighters forced the shuttles to land near highways, where they were attacked in the dark by their furious prey. They got what they had coming.

  The mysterious ship remained silent and motionless.

  Our landing was executed behind the town’s nearest buildings. Under the supervision of the fighters, our troops began to approach the ship, hiding among the rare vegetation.

  Silence.

  Ship systems would have already discovered the marines. We watched the ship’s weapons systems; we wanted to prevent losses among our troops, but we found no cause for concern. After looking from up close, we did not find any input/output devices, and we assumed the ship itself might have been the cause of the shuttles’ attack.

  I ordered everyone to go back to Fearless. When the shuttle with marines arrived, I teleported over the black ship and moved it in orbit around the planet near Fearless. I teleported in the ship one cyber-wasp with a set of “eyes” and scattered them across the corridors.

  Just behind the entrance doors were twenty humanoid soldiers in a row along the walls. They wore black hermetic helmets and had low, broad shoulders. Another dozen soldiers and a dozen crew members were situated on the control panels in the command room. People of the same race were moving in another corridor, and in a large hangar divided into floors were about fifty to sixty shuttle cells, with one-third of them empty. Perhaps the missing shuttles had been firing on the refugees.

  Who were these people?

  Robbers?

  They were not anything special.

  The planet was alive but disarmed. And it was being plundered.

  We started the inspection of the installations I was interested in. The damage was more serious than I expected. But on the three docks, the reactors were not affected. There were also three ships at different stages of construction in each dock, but we had bored tunnels through two of them. Still, at the place where the industry was making the big parts, it would not be difficult to replace the damaged ones.

  We started the tour of the destroyed large ships. The damage did not interest us. We searched for surviving crew members, pilots, and maintenance engineers. They were the great value. Earth specialists had been in short supply for a while now, so we would somehow get along with our recent enemies. On all cruisers, we found illuminators that lit up. We had to hurry. I mobilized a large transport ship with which we began a rescue mission under the supervision of the marines. We were approaching battleships with flashing lights without protective shields.

  The first two cruisers welcomed us with fire from their front batteries, and the escorts of our fighters had to fire back. Then, the rescue mission went well when we informed the survivors about our peaceful mission. We had to mobilize another transport ship to prevent clashes between the crews of the invaders and the protectors of the Kerrani System. And our crews on both sides found a wide variety of races and species that had different rankings in the hierarchy of the fleets and the corresponding internal intolerance between them. An internal division of transport vessels into sections with different breathing atmospheres, in which we also created VIP isolated premises, also became necessary.

  So as not to stay long in the uncomfortable ships, I transferred the saved aggressors to Mars, and I distributed the defenders to the surviving orbital stations around Corba at the disposal of the local administrators.

  To the local administrators, I gave the tasks of quickly recovering the management hierarchy and repairing the preserved stations and docks.

  It was a patriotic task with an incentive: the quick recovery of the battle power of the Kerrani System. I was convincing because an encounter with Earth experts and marines in the orbital regions and on the planetary surface was an extremely rare phenomenon.

  I teleported to the city of New Dallas on Mars, next to which we created the city of the Fellahs—the prisoners/aggressors of the Kerrani System. The city grew in its eight districts. Different nationalities appeared not only in the crews, but specialists and engineers knowledgeable of ship machinery turned out to be only from Corba. This worked for me. I mental copied the lists of data classified by specialties and ranks and the conducted interviews with VIPs and started my individual interviews.

  I chose Commander Agar of the First Squadron of the Third Bom. He had a big head with an expressive, strong face; black eyes with huge pupils; and a calm but threatening temper. He was a massive body dressed in a uniform without an insignia.

  We were studying each other. My appearance did not impress or scare him. He accepted the audience as something normal after the unexpected defeat of the fleet.

  “What was your task in the gathered fleet?” I asked.

  “Another military exercise. I’m in a military uniform, as you see.”

  “Yes, I see. I also see you have given up on your rank insignia. I’m not delighted. So, what lies have you prepared for me?”

  “Why should I lie to you?”

  “Once he has given up his mark of dignity, a former warrior intends to lie—and lie pointlessly. What does the truth matter about what your task has been in an armada armed to the teeth? I came to kill or to become friends. What you can tell us, we already have it and know.”

  “Why are we wasting time, then?”

  “It’s just an interview.”

  “I do not understand. You have some suggestion, or something has happened.”

  “What does ‘Third Bom’ mean?”

  “Third Squad from planet Bom.”

  “And that
is?”

  “The third populated planet from the Federation of Kerrani.”

  “Do you want to go home?”

  “Of course. The district was just starting to shape up.”

  “I’m talking about the planet Bom.”

  He stared at me with surprise and a long silence. “Why not kill me so that’s all over?”

  “Why should I kill you? I am asking where it is best for you. You come back alive without your squadron and give some explanations that nobody believes, but in Corba…yes, the same thing there.”

  “Yes. Dishonor. But I can at least die on my home planet.”

  “And if you go as my representative? You will bring messages from your live coworkers, who will work for a certain length of time and will return to their families if they wish.”

  “As the representative of a fartu? And what functions will I perform?”

  “A fartu who defeated your strong fleet. You will have restraining functions.”

  “What? Restraining functions? Who will I restrain?”

  “You’ll just explain what will happen to them if they go against the Earth Federation.”

  “It will not be up to me. They will not heed me.”

  “They will heed you. After the first clash, their attention will improve. If you are taken into the fleet, always wear a space suit.”

  “And if I lead them against you?”

  “You will not do it, because you have seen what happened. And I will look through your eyes and listen through your ears. You will hear my voice. I can destroy you at any time.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Your master.”

  I used his confusion and changed my appearance.

  He stared at me and fell on his left knee, with his right hand folded in a fist horizontally in front of his chest and his head lowered.

  “Overlord, forgive my ignorance and my mistrust. You appear only to a few chosen who are mediators between you and us, the mortals. It’s hard for us to recognize you.”

  I spoke telepathically straight into his head.

  “You will declare before the planet Bom that you are my spokesman there, and through your mouth I send messages. But be careful when you speak on my behalf. I will always be there, so be honest. When you summon me, again I will be with you and will act through you, but do not summon me without need. Your planet will become the religious center of the Kerrani Federation.”

  I closed my eyes and used a view of his planet according to his mental copies and teleported him there.

  On the very same day, we began loading the prisoners of war of the Kerrani System on transport ships that I teleported immediately to the Corba surroundings, where one of my first actions as the chief organizer was to send my advisor Nolen to use his organizational talent and restore the repair docks and their four ships. Fearless was maneuvering in orbit there. It had enough firepower to carry out the guard service and be an observer-supervisor of dock-repair works. For nonparticipation in repairs or for diversions in production, punishment consisted of being thrown out in open space. Sources of food, water, gases, and spare parts came from Corba. I once again reminded the governments there about the redemption imposed—the restoration of Prima Davos.

  In the event of nonperformance, their obligations to that planet would be increased tenfold.

  I visited the allied planet, Prima Davos. I was delighted to meet Kobo and our Earth ambassadors on this planet who had survived in hiding places deep under the surface. Of the ten billion population, only about twelve to thirteen million were left alive, of which about three million were crippled or children—a tough situation. Despaired, Kobo had informed me so late about the destruction because he knew we were weak and could not change anything. I found out they had three more colonized but sparsely populated planets with a population of about twenty-five to thirty million. With our help, the Prima Davos System had a chance to survive, but they had suffered a heavy blow. In several of their large industrial cities, they were clearing out the destruction, and there were attempts to clarify the situation with the production capacity. Many construction machines sent from Earth were also participating in the clearing, and their number increased each month. Earth had an interest in a friendly protected base in this area. But our main efforts would remain in the Kerrani System.

  It was too big a morsel for us to swallow but too much loss for the enigmatic overlords. Therein was the intersection where we would unavoidably meet. I wanted to know how many they were, what they were, and why they threw so much force against civilizations they knew so little about.

  I was hardly the cause of this genocide, but I would ask them when I met them, and our meeting would not be to my relatives’ liking.

  Anyway, Earth warships originated from Prima Davos. The navy of the Kerrani System and Corba did not fulfill its task of destroying Earth civilization and manifested hesitation and doubt in the reasonableness of the order, and a verdict was reached.

  The events and their consequences were connected to us—to me.

  24 Economy, Construction, and Space Battles

  There was now a lot of work to do on both planets. On Corba, we revived the military industry because we needed dozens of their big ships. I drained all the resources of the enormous and powerful economy for the restoration of their victim: Prima Davos. With brute force, we literally crushed the few attempts to resist by the most brazen and rigid rulers. I purged the tyrants who had usurped the power on the planet. All were sentenced to death by their judges on my order. Their execution was performed with a spectacularly scary lights show, showing that God was punishing them for their crimes. As Corba supreme governor, I appointed my trusted officer, Nolen. He had proved his talents as a businessman with the management of much of Earth’s economy, and I wished to use his organizational qualities and flair for military building.

  In a year and eight months, the restored orbital docks completed three of the four ships that we found unfinished in their stocks. The ships were enormous and equipped with the most modern weaponry and protective fields separated into segments and sectors, even after the reactors were installed based on the new “JI” technology that copied the processes from the interior of our sun. In each of the new ships, we installed two sun-type reactors to ensure the viability of a combat unit carrying hundreds of fighters and landing shuttles.

  The strength of our united fleet was growing rapidly. On the other federal planets of the Kerrani System, we commissioned the production of the four types of fighters and landing and cargo shuttles, as well as their main task to produce a new extremely fast type of interstellar ship for both passengers and cargo. Despite the threat of intervention remaining, we reconstructed the mobility of our transport systems with a view to a future that would give us a chance of survival somewhere in the galactic star branch. Fast interstellar ships would be the link between asteroids, starships, and planets of origin. Not only would humanity begin spreading but so would the intelligent races from the associated planets. All races needed a connection with their home planets so that civilization would not degrade among the limited number of members of these societies.

  The Kerrani Federation’s separation from its main planet, Corba, would not remain unnoticed by the overlords, for it was a blow to their prestige. It shattered the belief in the unshakable dominance of those creatures called overlords. Each delay of their strike allowed an increase in the fighting capabilities of the Solar Federation and the need to engage larger military forces from different planetary systems.

  It turned out there was no absolute destruction of the “living” planets but selective sterilization of rebellious planets.

  But the prospect of imposing power through the threat of annihilation of the rebellious ones came to light, as did the ugly threat of a merciless imperial organization—an empire. Earth had not suspected this until recently, but now it turned out to be a sacrificial lamb. But this “lamb” showed its sharp teeth and did not want to give its tender skin. />
  I was expecting a crushing blow, so I moved the challenge away from Earth to the nearby galactic branch. I was directing the strike against their own main base: the Kerrani Federation.

  I did not need the merciless Kerrani Federation’s federal consent. I imposed on them the role of a “disobedient” federation.

  The empire could strike on its own, for all I cared. I would create many targets for them. Let their fleet wander to and fro. That was how empires were broken—namely, when they were not able to control the peripheries.

  The spreading would be our reconnaissance that would uncover the peripheries who willed the future rebels.

  Let them be slow. Time was on our side. They did not have time to keep reconnaissance of our technologies, most of which were in my head. That was what I wanted, to keep them pressed for time. First of all, time would not be enough for them, followed by power and then science and technology. But the powerful economy and industry remained on their side.

  Bloody battles were coming.

  At the periphery of the solar system, our silent observation posts detected silhouettes of fast ships. I perceived it as snapshots in a developing situation—reconnaissance of orbital defense equipment and repair and construction docks. The same was done around the Kerrani Federation. It could have been just psychological pressure, but the scouts were circling around, not us. My goal was to have the scouts attack the Kerrani Federation. They would earn nothing if they attacked the solar system. It was possible but not to gain prestige. It was an unknown, defenseless star with only one poor populated planet.

  No, the Kerrani Federation was a more prestigious target.