Genesis

by Lawrence P White

  Ollie’s eyes narrowed intently as he studied Kannick. “Not true,” he stated emphatically. “Where did you get that idea?”

  “We’re prepared to prove it, Ollie,” Kannick countered.

  Ollie’s hand shook as he reached for the back of his pilot seat to steady himself. He was speechless, lost in his own thoughts. “This is a disaster,” he mumbled.

  “Precisely our feeling,” Kannick stated, getting up and stepping up to Ollie. “Assume for the moment that we’re correct, that the Oort developed their own cloaking device. Can your ships defend themselves against it?”

  “You just saw how the odds changed when you activated your cloaking device,” Ollie grumbled. “I think it would come down to the capabilities of the system aboard the Oort ships and the skills of the individual crews. If it is as primitive as yours, our losses would not increase dramatically.”

  “That’s a big maybe, Ollie. You told us that one Oort ship getting through is all it takes, and I’m pretty sure your ring of unmanned battle stations is useless against cloaked ships. You might lose Haldor.”

  Ollie glared at Kannick, then he turned to Greg and spoke angrily, “You think I, of all people, do not know that?”

  Silence gripped the bridge. Ollie broke it as softly as a Harbok could. “You wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble if you didn’t have a plan.”

  Kannick nodded. “You’re right. Will the Harbok accept a gift from the An’Atee?”

  “I don’t know. What gift? In return for what?”

  “In return for nothing. A gift from us to you. We brought the plans for the laser tagger with us. We want to give the plans to you with no strings attached. The plans include engineering drawings and the science that goes with them.”

  “You would just give them to us?” Ollie asked suspiciously. He shook his head as he tried to stabilize his thoughts. “Will we be able to read the plans?”

  “Most likely. Assuredly given enough time. We don’t know how much time you have. The last attack that we know of against Haldor took place some six months ago. When can you expect another?”

  “How do you know? I’ve heard nothing of such an attack.”

  “How we know isn’t important. Haldor won the battle, but at least one Oort ship stayed out of the battle. We were not aware of its presence until the battle ended. We only caught a fleeting glimpse of it before it jumped. After studying the recording, our scientists believe that the momentary glimpse of the ship resulted from it turning off a cloaking device in preparation for a jump. Ollie, we don’t know if your people picked up this ship on their sensors. It was pure luck that we had a ship in the area.”

  “Let me see the recording.”

  “We had thought to make a presentation at your base, but we can do it here on the fighter if you prefer.”

  “Yes. Now. I am suddenly in a hurry. In fact, I’m prepared to leave for Haldor in this little fighter right now. Will you take me?”

  “How much time does Haldor have?” Kannick asked.

  “We have never seen attacks spaced less than five years apart, but you’re telling me the ground rules might have changed. Who can say?”

  “We can take this ship to Haldor, but we think it might be wiser to go in one of yours. I am prepared to go with you in case your scientists need assistance with the engineering,” Kannick said.

  Ollie turned to Greg with a questioning look in his eyes. “Sorry, Ollie,” Greg said. “I’m not a scientist. I have no idea how the thing works. Still, I’d like to go . . .” He considered for a moment, then shook his head, “No, I’m needed elsewhere.”

  “Where could be more important than Haldor at a time like this?” Ollie demanded.

  “I can’t say.”

  Ollie’s brow furrowed, and his eyes narrowed as he asked, “Just who are you, Greg Hamilton?”

  “Just good old Greg, Earthman,” he replied.

  “I’m not stupid, you know,” Ollie retorted. “I saw what went on in your prime ship. Good old Greg, Earthman, who everyone addresses as ‘Sir.’”

  “I can’t say any more for the present. In time, when there’s more trust between us, we can return to this subject.”

  “There might not be a later. Haldor is in terrible danger.”

  “Our gift might help.”

  Ollie considered deeply. “It won’t be enough. It might work close-in to the planet when the Oort are forced to drop their cloaking devices, but at best it will only help us slow them down.”

  “What do you mean? Why wait until then?” Greg asked.

  Ollie stared hard at him. “I know you mean well, Greg, but you missed on this one. Imagine, if you will, the Oort coming out of hyper and heading for Haldor, or maybe some other planet of ours. We do our usual thing and go out to meet them, and this new system you’ve given us is ready. Correct?”

  “It’s what we had in mind.”

  “Let me give you another scenario. The Oort drop out of hyper and immediately activate their cloaking devices. They disappear. How do we find them so that we can get close enough to use this new system?”

  Ollie’s words stunned Greg. They stunned Kannick as well. They looked at each other in disbelief, with the same thought going through each of their minds. How had they missed this? Everyone involved had missed something that was completely obvious. They had fallen into the same trap the An’Atee constantly found themselves in—they had not thought it completely through.

  Greg felt ashamed before Ollie. He could understand Grayson missing something so fundamental—he was going flat out to train his men, and he was still a neophyte at space flight.

  But himself? What else had he missed? Had he become too An’Atee in his ways?

  He might have. He had dropped the ball badly on this one. He knew instinctively that his role as Chairman had to change. He was spending too much time on administration and not enough on what mattered.

  He found Ollie watching him intently. He took a deep breath and said, “I can’t believe I missed that, Ollie. I will find a way to make it up to you. Can the Harbok defend themselves against an Oort cloaking device?”

  “To the best of my knowledge, no.”

  “Do you think your scientists will be able to come up with a solution now that they know the danger?”

  “I can’t say.”

  Greg thought hard as he reordered his thoughts into a new plan, then he said, “I need you to do something for me, Ollie. Kannick is prepared to go with you to help your engineers convert our drawings to your language. But now, in light of the picture you paint, he needs to see Lor Tas’val as well.”

  “You’re joking!” Ollie exclaimed. “I’ve never even met the Lor.”

  “I am not joking. Your survival, and maybe our own, hangs in the balance, and I’m not talking years from now. I’m talking about right now.”

  “Just who are you, Greg Hamilton, that you ask such a thing?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Not if the Oort have a cloaking device.”

  “Can you get him in to see Lor Tas’val?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Will you try?”

  “You don’t appreciate the difficulties.” Ollie sighed and looked away. He turned his back on Greg and Kannick for a time. When he turned back to them, he said, “I’ll try. I might fail.”

  To Kannick, Greg said, “As much as I’d like to go with you, I can’t right now. I need to get back and get people working on this.”

  He turned back to Ollie. “The An’Atee will try to resolve this problem, but they’ll have a better chance of finding a solution if you send your cloaking device scientists and engineers to Ariall. They know a lot more than we do about the system.”

  Ollie looked at him with troubled eyes. “You have no idea what you’re asking. Such a thing will not happen.”

  “Make it happen, Ollie.”

  “For all of our sakes, I hope the Oort do not have the cloaking device, Greg. For Kannick’s sake, I hope they do. Yo
u had better not be wrong.”

  * * * * *

  Kannick pocketed the video recording of the cloaked Oort ship as Greg dropped him and Ollie at the Harbok base on Earth. He and Kannick embraced hard outside the ship. “I’m going to miss your mentoring, pal,” Greg told him.

  “You’re way beyond my mentoring now. Keep an eye on Danaria for me.”

  “I will. You realize that your voyage will be as meaningful to the An’Atee as mine was?”

  “I hope it will have a lot less excitement.”

  “Just one more thought then. It’s a wild idea, but after you’re done with Haldor, how about bringing Ollie back with you?”

  Kannick was truly startled. “Why? Are you ready to give away all our plans?”

  “No. He would have to agree to some ground rules, like staying for a while. I don’t know—the idea just came to me—but we’re doing things in a vacuum right now. We just saw Ollie point out a major shortcoming of something we were really proud of. I wonder what other guidance he could give us? And won’t our plans be more productive if the Harbok help us make them?”

  “I think you’re on to something, Greg. I’ll keep it in mind and evaluate things as I go. After spending two days with Ollie, I like him. I think he and I are off to a good start.”

  “As long as they don’t shoot you on sight once you arrive on Haldor.”

  “Aye, there is that . . . ”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kannick followed Ollie into the base. They went directly to Ollie’s ship which was already preparing for departure. Knowing the Harbok preferred a cold environment, he had dressed warmly and brought other supplies from Ariall, including a parka and a sleeping bag.

  The moment he stepped aboard the ship, he entered a world of gray, a world that, unknown to him, would remain gray for many long months. The Harbok did not waste energy on aesthetics, convenience, or the arts. Hardness and functionality defined the ship. Ollie led him through corridors made of steel. Welded joints and bolts held everything together, and gray paint covered the walls, decks, and overheads. They passed through a common lounge area, but it, too, looked drab and stark, with several couches and a number of plastic chairs. The fabric on the couches was a mixture of brown and beige, but it looked horribly out of place among all the gray.

  Ollie brought him to his quarters, a stark room without carpets, decorations, and not even towels or a shower. He informed Kannick that he would have to share a community bathroom with the rest of the crew. Kannick said nothing. He observed, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

  Ollie invited him to the bridge, a place where Kannick was fairly certain he would not be welcome. He was right. The crew was surprised to see him there, and instant stares of contempt informed him without words that he was not welcome. Ollie nodded grimly at the tense atmosphere, but he ignored it and got down to work.

  The bridge was located near the center of the ship, right next to the drive compartment. Ollie kept up a running commentary to Kannick, speaking in the Harbok language. Kannick did not catch all the technical terms, but he had a fair grasp of what was taking place.

  Ollie climbed up into an elevated seat at the rear of the bridge, the watch commander’s seat. Immediately in front of him and below was a console with two seats, one for the pilot and one for the navigator. Both had their heads down, entering data on keyboards in front of monitors built into the slanted console. Other stations composed a second, outer ring in front of Ollie that filled most of the remaining space. Crewmen, whose purposes Kannick did not know, manned these stations. Rectangular screens on the walls and ceiling presented a live view of whatever was outside the ship.

  The pilot and navigator completed their entries, briefly compared results, then the pilot lifted the ship and carefully edged his way out of the cavern. Greg’s ship had already left.

  Once in space and established on course, Ollie made a general announcement through the ship for everyone to join him on the bridge. Startled looks met the announcement, but Ollie again ignored them. When everyone was assembled, Kannick counted twenty-six bodies in attendance. The bridge had not been designed for so many and was very full.

  Ollie shifted uneasily in his seat as he looked over his crew. “You have questions,” he began. “I will answer as best I can. This An’Atee, Colonel Kannick, a senior member of the An’Atee, brought word to us that the Oort have a cloaking device.”

  Gasps, growls, and a few grunts met his statement.

  He gave them a while to consider the ramifications, then he continued. “Not only is Haldor in trouble, all our worlds are in trouble. It’s no secret that the Oort covet Haldor. They have successfully encroached on our domain elsewhere, but only because we always defeat attacks against Haldor. I personally believe that the first time we see the Oort cloaking device will be during the next attack against Haldor. Using it elsewhere would give us warning.

  “The An’Atee have developed a primitive cloaking device of their own.” More shocked expressions met these words. “I saw it myself. Though primitive, it works, and I do not doubt for a moment that the An’Atee will improve it over time. They developed something else as well.” He waited a moment to be sure everyone was following him and said, “They developed a system that, once they find a cloaked ship, keeps that ship illuminated even when cloaked. I saw it with my own eyes, and I used it earlier today in trials aboard one of their ships. I defeated a Harbok opponent with it.”

  Stony looks met his words, and eyes full of hate shifted to Kannick. He returned those looks with a steady gaze that revealed nothing of his inner discomfort.

  “There’s more,” Ollie stated. “Colonel Kannick brought the plans for this new system with him. He came to help our engineers build and install the system on our ships.”

  Dead silence filled the bridge for a moment, then one Harbok growled, “At what price?” Several others took up the call.

  “It’s already ours,” Ollie answered. “There are no strings attached. There is one request, but it is not attached to the offer. The system is a gift.”

  More than one Harbok scratched his head in confusion.

  “What is the request?” asked the pilot.

  “Colonel Kannick is requesting an audience with Lor Tas’val.”

  Gasps met this statement as well. “I’m not entirely certain why he wants to meet with the Lor, but he does,” Ollie continued. “I do not give him high odds of success. In the meantime, because Haldor might be on the brink of falling to the Oort, I believe it is appropriate to accept assistance from anywhere, including the An’Atee. I am putting my career on the line with that statement, but I say this as well—I want you to be as open with Colonel Kannick as you can during this voyage. The Lor might disagree when he learns of my decision, but until then, my instructions to you are that you keep no secrets from Colonel Kannick. Our people are in grave peril. If Colonel Kannick can assist us in any way, it will be to our benefit. That is all.”

  Kannick reached up to touch Ollie’s arm. “May I say a few words?”

  Ollie nodded, then he looked at his men. “Anyone with a critical need to be elsewhere can leave. The rest of you stay.”

  Two crewmen left, for what purposes Kannick did not know. He looked over the crowded bridge, almost overwhelmed at the disgust emanating from the Harbok crew.

  He braced himself and said, “I have killed Harbok. I only recently learned about the Oort and that you have been protecting me from them. I grieve deeply for your dead, and I apologize to each of you.”

  Stony looks met his words, looks that Kannick understood. “I know you don’t want my help,” he continued, “but as your captain said, Haldor and all of you might be on the brink of annihilation. That alone is reason enough to consider help from any source.

  “You are great fighters. You know that I am not. What you do not know is that when it comes to the Oort, that is no longer the case. I can fight the Oort, and I will fight the Oort.”

  He took a deep breath and sai
d, “You don’t have to go it alone against the Oort. The An’Atee recently developed a weapon that can destroy all the attacking ships of an Oort armada instantly.”

  Confused looks met this revelation, and well they should. Kannick would keep the nature of the weapon secret even from the Lor, provided he ever got to see the man. He nodded as he shifted his gaze around the bridge, making eye contact with anyone who was willing to look at him.

  “You heard me right,” he said. “If you’re willing to work with us, we might be looking at an end to this war against the Oort. The discovery that the Oort have a cloaking device has set us back—we have to see the Oort to use our weapon, but the weapon does work. We’ll find a solution to the cloaking device, and when we do, the very nature of your battles against them will change.

  “Concerning the plans I brought for the laser tagger—an interim solution—I had high hopes, but your captain convinced me that the system will only have limited success. Still, it’s a beginning. I hope to get your scientists working on this hardware while we An’Atee develop a way to get close enough to a cloaked ship to use it.”

  He had their attention, though he did not have their acceptance. “I want to leave you with this thought,” he said. “My people are lousy fighters. You know that, and we know that. Still, we can give you better odds of surviving battles. By that, I mean that each of you, personally, might live longer.”

  Heated discussion followed Kannick’s words, but by the time Ollie dismissed the men, Kannick believed he had at least made a dent in their hostility.

  Ollie led Kannick from the bridge. “My men now know things I didn’t even know,” Ollie stated. “Is there more?”

  “Not much more that I can tell you.”

  “I’m gradually getting a different feel for you An’Atee,” Ollie said. “I met one An’Atee female who I respect. You might end up in the same category if you’re not careful.” They reached Ollie’s quarters, and Ollie motioned for Kannick to enter. The room seemed spacious until Ollie entered. As soon as he did, the room seemed confining, much more so than Kannick would have expected for the captain.