by Sid Kar
“Firing code accepted,” he read off the computer screen.
“Electricity generation in T minus 5 seconds,”
“Fire!”
“Firing weapon,” both assistant and the main firing officers pulled their levers towards them and a second later the combined electricity of the seventy power plants rushed through the superconducting transmission wire and into the cannon’s energy transformer where it was converted and condensed into a Ray that shot out of the long cannon and rushed out into the space towards the longest alien battleship.
The rose colored energy ray delivered a massive strike to the hull of Mysterious One as its outer shield shattered into pieces at the strike point and the ray started burning a hole through the ship’s outer surface and then went right in and came out from the other side.
Mysterious One’s violent maneuvers to escape the ray conveyed the surprise its crew must have felt after being struck by a weapon of such magnitude from out of nowhere. But the next moment it would be Nestorians who would watch in amazement as the battleship accelerated within seconds to light speed, left the gravity field of the gas giant behind and sped off past planet Blackskull and into the edge of the solar system.
“General, it’s unbelievable,” officer watching gravitron scanner remarked, “Mysterious One has hit 50 light speed…100 light speed.”
“What kind of engines must that ship have to generate such acceleration?” Remus asked to no one in particular.
“Engines our science cannot produce,” Bakus said.
“It’s gone,” the scanner officer said. The ship had disappeared from the scanner and left the solar system.
The energy ray had also made a furious arc across the sky to try to catch its target and was now sending its energy pointlessly into the empty space.
“Reorient the weapon. Mark the enemy battleship approaching us as Mysterious Two.”
“Marked as Mysterious Two,” assistant plotting officer said.
“Aim and Lock on Mysterious Two,” Bakus said.
“Not possible,” Plotting officer replied, “Aim and lock failed.”
“Why?” Bakus barked.
“General, Mysterious Two has dropped to the other side of our planet,” plotting officer shrugged his shoulder.
“I hope Pontus is taking advantage of this and ganging up on the lone alien battleship,” Bakus said.
He was about to ask one of his officers for data on the space battle still ongoing when another officer yelled.
“Spacefighters oncoming,” radar officer said, “counting 200…count increased to 500,” he read off his radar.
“Speed?”
“Sub-light speed.”
“Must be searching for our cannon,” Bakus said, “Otherwise I bet these bastards have engines even in their spacefighters to go super-light speed inside a planet’s gravity field.”
“Should we retarget the weapon on the third alien battleship?” plotting officer asked.
“No, shut down the weapon,” Bakus said, “initiate power plant shutdown.”
“Power plant shutdown initiated,” the power officer started reversing the switches on his panel, “Power plant shutdown in T minus 10 seconds.”
“Shut off the weapon transformer,” Bakus said, “Kill the ray.”
“Energy transformer off,” the firing officers said and pulled out the metallic card from the slot.
“Power plant shutdown,” the power officer said.
General Bakus took a sigh of relief. It had gone just as they had trained and practiced for many times before but this was the first time using it in actual combat conditions. The power plants and the energy transformer of the weapon had to be shut down within ten seconds of each other. If the power plants kept operating but with no outlet for their massive electricity output then it would short circuit the whole base and everything including the weapon and the underground power plants would be destroyed. If on the other hand the energy transformer couldn’t draw any energy it would implode upon itself creating an intense vacuum that would collapse everything around for a large distance.
“The superconductors general?” the transmission technician asked.
“Leave them on,” General said, “we might have to use it again.” Keeping the superconductors cooled to near absolute zero over such a large distance sucked a large amount of energy but it was something he was willing to waste to shave off time for the next firing of the weapon.
“I don’t wish to intrude on tactical decisions but why did you shut it off?” Remus asked.
Bakus laughed, “You haven’t seen the energy ray that is why you say that. It is intensely bright red and can be seen with a naked eye from another planet. It will draw the enemy spacefighters right here.”
“Use it to shoot them down?”
Bakus laughed again, “were that we could, it would just zap them and vaporize them instantly but it is like shooting fish with a cannon. Won’t lock on small targets, instead I am going to launch my own spacefighters.”
Bakus walked over a few feet to a communication station that had a direct line to the base command above the surface.
“This is General Bakus speaking,” he announced to the soldiers above, “enemy space fighters are scanning the surface of this planet for us. I want total blackout. And no one fires on any spacefighter that flies above unless it starts shooting at our weapon. I want all of our spacefighters to be launched. Search and engage the enemy. But do not fly back here, land wherever you have to and turn on your signal beacon. The land patrol will rescue you.”
The base had three hundred Nestorian spacefighters that were named Hawk after a type of a bird found on the planet Nestor. They were 40 feet long, had a wingspan of 30 feet, carried a pilot and a navigator up front along with a standard laser gun. Their main armaments were the six super luminous rockets but today four of them had been exchanged with sub luminous rockets. Faster than light rockets inside a planet’s gravity field could not turn around and reacquire a missed target, instead they slammed into the surface.
The three hundred hawks launched into the air and took off to hunt the alien spacefighters. The Nestorians had covered the surface of the planet with radar installations and these painted a broad canvas of targets for each Hawk to chase.
The alien spaceship hiding behind the other side of the planet realized that its spacefighters had abandoned their search for the ray weapon and instead had engaged the oncoming fighters into aerial dogfights. It launched five hundred more spacefighters from its bay which picked up the task of scanning the surface of the planet.
“How many fighter planes do they carry!” Bakus wiped the sweat off his forehead. He was now watching the radar data from across the planet that was relayed into the operations room.
“General, surface under attack from enemy fighters,” the defense officer shouted.
“Order laser batteries to commence firing,” Bakus said but he knew they would have done so already.
The hundred anti-aircraft laser cannons had opened fire at the enemy swirling around in the sky and were making hits and dropping one every now and then. The alien spacecrafts were shooting lasers at the Starfire Cannon which just bounced off of it and when enemy switched to shooting rockets their explosion did not so much as make a dent into it.
“Laser batteries are getting destroyed by the enemy fire,” defense officer said, “but the weapon holds steady.”
“A strange metal alloy protects it,” Bakus said, “recall all our fighters.”
But all the fighters in the air above Blackskull were already rushing at top speed towards this location.
Then the alien battleship marked Mysterious Two suddenly disappeared from their radar.
“Mysterious Two is gone,” radar officer said.
“What?” Bakus remarked.
“It flew away from the planet into space,” the scanner officer said, “it’s visible on gravitron now.”
Bakus and Remus walked over to the Gravitron sca
nner. Bakus suddenly put both of his hands on his head and froze with his mouth wide open.
The alien battleship rapidly accelerated and swung past the planet Blackskull while still out in space and launched a torrent of rockets. The coordinates for the location of Starfire Cannon had been established and relayed by the alien spacefighters to their battleship and were programmed into the rockets. The laser batteries fired at the rockets but could not hit the faster than light speed rockets that struck the energy ray weapon with multiple explosions sending up a dozen big red mushroom clouds in the sky.
Bakus and company downstairs felt earthquake like shakes in their underground base and the staff tipped over in their seats.
“What the hell?” Remus said, “they used atomics on a surface strike. It is against the Space War Law to hit the planetary surface with atomics!”
“Let us haul them before a space court,” Bakus said, “now all we need are a couple of civic-minded space patrolmen to serve them summons.”
“Senate will hear of this,” Remus said.
“And do what?” Bakus said, “Our most powerful weapon is gone. What remains on the surface?” Bakus turned to the defense officer but answered himself, “nothing.”
“Over a hundred Hawks have survived, General,” the defense officer said, “but the rest of the surface base is totally destroyed.”
“Enemy spacefighters retreating to the battleship marked as Mysterious Two,” radar officer said.
“Order vice-commander Pontus and Battleship Republic to come to our aid immediately,” Bakus said to the communications officer, “And have them bring two more battleships along.”
“Will the enemy battleship be able to scan for us?” Remus asked.
“I don’t think so but I am not taking any chances. Who knows how far their science has advanced. For all we know they are reading our thoughts,” Bakus said eliciting laughter from a couple of officers.
“You think this is funny,” Bakus said, “we lost thousands of soldiers less than a minute ago and you…”
“General, the enemy battleships are retreating,” the gravitron officer said, “they are accelerating for an exit from the solar system.”
“Speed?” Bakus asked.
“20 light speed and accelerating,” the officer replied,
“Slower than the mad escape of their first ship which was like a man jumping out of a burning building,” Bakus said, “But faster than what our battleships can accelerate.”
“22 light speed,” the officer said.
“Hmmm…”
“25 light speed,”
“Call off the chase,” Bakus turned to the communications officer.
“Sir, there was no chase,” communications officer replied.
“Why?” Bakus asked but got his answer the next moment when the damage reports from the seven battleships flashed across a couple of screens in the room.
“Damn…damn…damn,” Bakus read it out loud, “minimum damage is 25% and average damage is 55% what the…”
“Maximum damage of 81%,” Remus said, “That battleship is all but destroyed. General Bakus I want these reports for Senate and Chancellors review as promptly as possible.”
“Have at it,” Bakus turned around to face him, “I will personally deliver the report and give a piece of my mind to the fools who make up our senate. No offense to you.”
Bakus stormed off into his personal quarters and as Remus watched the gravitron the alien spaceships disappeared out of the solar system and off of the scanner.
Chapter 3: Analysis
Vice-Chancellor Remus hurriedly walked up the stairs of the Senate building to the topmost floor where he was scheduled to attend the meeting with Chancellor Augus and other leaders of the republic. It had been a couple of weeks since the battle and they were recovering from the damage. The battleships had been sent to the yards for repair and the army analysists were all over the place trying to understand just what exactly had taken place. Remus walked on to the top floor and then walked down the empty corridor and stood in front of a steel door in the center. The machine in front scanned his face and his iris and then the door slid open and automatically closed when he walked inside.
Chancellor Augus was standing in front of his table while General Bakus was standing to his right. Everyone else was seated on individual sofas spread around in a semi-circle. There was War Minister Horus Bors an old balding man with a sleepy right eye, Foreign Minister Hickus Tofus an oblong-faced middle aged man with saucer-shaped eyes sat in front of him with his opposite fingers making an arch. Interior Minister Lemon Bree sat confidently with one leg on his other knee; he was a suave man with hair combed back neatly and a clean shaven face. The last person present was Senator Solus Vars, the official leader of the opposition in the senate, who appeared to be lost in his own thoughts while he stroked his beard.
“Gentlemen, now that everyone is here, let us begin this meeting,” Augus said and looked at Remus who nodded his head in approval. Remus did not take a seat but stood near the door. “General Bakus, what are we calling this battle, a victory or a defeat?” He turned around to face the general as he asked the question.
“I would call it a draw,” Bakus replied and before he could continue he was cut off by War Minister Horus Bors who jumped in, “A draw? Our enemy ran away.”
“After inflicting a lot of damage upon our battleships,” Bakus said.
“And we haven’t had a single attack by these aliens since that battle,” Horus said.
“And they destroyed our most powerful weapon: Starfire Cannon,” Bakus said.
“Our enemy is licking his wounds too,” Horus said, “if that is any consolation to you, general…”
“It is not,” Bakus shot back
“For nothing short of total destruction of the enemy would have done for you but war sometimes turns out like politics with muddled outcomes,” Horus said.
“We have no idea what damage we have done to the enemy,” Bakus said, “Battleship Guardian will have to be scrapped completely; rest will be in the repair yards for months.”
“This alien spaceship you marked Mysterious One, we did destroy it, no?” Horus flailed his hands outward on either side.
“No, just ruined it and it was all the work of the energy ray,” Bakus said.
“So,” Horus shrugged.
“Starfire Cannon is not our weapon. I don’t find it reassuring that the only weapon that was truly effective is the one that we had imported,” Bakus said, “And now it is gone.”
“I can commandeer any of our industries to rebuild it on a war footing,” Interior Minister Lemon said.
“It is far beyond our technical capability to build it,” Remus said, “our scientists don’t even understand its working.”
“Hickus can place an order for the replacement,” Lemon said.
“Why don’t we just invoke the protection contract we have with the Starfire Empire?” Foreign Minister Hickus asked.
“Do not invite those dastardly hordes to settle our affairs,” Senator Solus Vars sprang up from his seat and waved his finger at Hickus, “Or have we forgotten that Starfirians had suggested that we crown a king when the protection treaty was signed.”
“They believed it would bring stability to our republic and their observation wasn’t totally off mark,” Bakus added quickly, “not that I agree with them.”
“The republic cannot survive interference of kings and generals in its politics,” Senator Solus said.
“Would you like me to leave, Senator?” Bakus asked and took a step towards the door.
“Nobody is suggesting that,” Chancellor Augus said, “Solus. It was originally Hickus’ idea, your fellow elected senator.”
“Me and my senators won’t support it,” Solus waived his palm, “We don’t want the Imperial Starfleet to come out here and park itself in our orbit.”
“Our protection contract stipulates no interference in our politics,” Augus said, “Starfirian track reco
rd with regards to their other protectorates is consistent with that.”
“Sure,” Solus guffawed, “they don’t send in the Starfleet with lasers blazing into the protectorates but if you think their cunning and ruthless spy department isn’t active subverting republics across the galaxy, you aren’t fit to be the chancellor.”
“May I remind you, Solus,” Augus said, “This treaty is already signed and we don’t need a vote in the senate to invoke it.”
“Do as you wish but I will raise the people against it,” Solus turned around and stomped out the door.
“You don’t have to take this chancellor,” Remus said, “Barely 20 senators support him.” Remus never liked this behavior from the opposition leader but he could not risk to alienate him either as it could ruin his own shot at becoming the Chancellor. The elderly and gentlemanly Augus was no match for abrasive Solus in politics, but fortunately this earned Augus many other allies who also disliked Solus and kept him in the office.
“The man is passionate if a bit unreasonable,” Augus said, “I don’t want to make him feel marginalized and have him stir up trouble when we already have enough on our plate.”
“We are at war Chancellor even if we haven’t announced the battle to the public,” Lemon said, “I can order the public assemblies canceled. Throttle Solus before he even utters a word.”
“No, that will give credence to his opposition. I will try to reason with him afterward,” Augus said, “I want to return to this question of our protection contract with Starfirians and whether we should invoke it?”
“From a military standpoint we are hard pressed Chancellor,” Bakus said, “In the next two months we can field no more than 26 battleships. On the other hand, we have managed to identify about a dozen different alien battleships based on scattered reports of our mining ships and our spy ships.”
“Should be enough then,” Horus said.
“If we assume the ratio of our 7 ships against their 3 battleships as equivalent force,” Bakus said, “we will need 28 battleships.”
“Have Lemon conscript whatever labor force he needs to expedite the repairs,” Horus said.
