by Saxon Andrew
“I need you to go and pick her up. Go home and pack a bag for a long trip.”
“What’s going on, Dad?”
“Jee, do you trust me?” The young man stared at Ste and then nodded. “Don’t ask permission to leave, just get up and go! Pick up Jan, go and pack your bags, and contact me when you’ve done it!”
“Dad, I’ve just been promoted, and this could cost me my job.”
“Son, that promotion won’t help you if you’re dead! Do like I’ve asked and contact me when you’re at home.” The young man’s expression instantly showed his fear. But he quickly asked, “Are we leaving Haven?” Ste stared at him with an angry expression and he quickly said, “I want to take my girlfriend.”
Ste stared at him and Sha broke into the call, “Are you her boyfriend?” Jee was shocked at Sha’s face and she quickly added, “If you want to take her because of your feelings for her but see she doesn’t feel the same, then forget it!”
Ste’s face returned to the communicator and he said, “Jee, she’s right. If you aren’t ready to marry her, you can’t bring her!!”
Jee sighed, “I’ll pick up Jan. What if she refuses to go?”
“I’m going to contact her the moment I end this call. Get moving, Jee!”
Ste ended the call and then pressed the button for his daughter.
Chapter Twenty-Five
An hour later, Ste felt his communicator vibrate and Jan appeared on it, “What do we do now, Dad?”
“Put your luggage into the air-transport and fly it out of the city. Head north and go to its maximum altitude and wait for me.”
“Where are you, Dad?’
“Close. Do like I’ve asked, Jan.”
Ste turned to Sha and she shook her head, “Air-traffic above the city is heavy; nothing yet.” A few minutes later Sha pointed at the front monitor, “I have a small craft moving north above the city and gaining altitude. Ste grabbed the joystick and pushed it forward.
• • •
Jan looked at Jee, “What do you think is going on?”
“I don’t know but Dad said if I didn’t do as he asked, I’d be dead.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I’m here, Jan.”
“Just checking. We used most of our fuel getting to this altitude.”
“Jan, we’re going to follow his instructions to the letter; I believe in him.”
Suddenly, a starship flashed in beside them and a large door on the side of it opened. The ship began moving sideways toward them and Jee turned the air-transport and moved it slowly through the door. He lowered the thrusters as it flew into the small bay to prevent the transport from hitting the ceiling. The door swung up, and Ste rushed into the landing bay. His children rushed out of the air-transport into his arms, “What’s going on, Dad?!” Jan asked.
“The colonies are being attacked by an alien civilization. Haven is probably the next colony they’ll invade, and I had to try and get you out before that happened.”
“But…”
“Please hold your questions until later. You can come in to the bridge with me, but I need you to sit against the back wall and be quiet. Will you do that, please.” Jee looked at Jan and then they nodded. “Follow me.”
They ran after Ste and saw a man and woman on the bridge. They sat against the back wall, as Tal stood up from Ste’s console and walked back to them. Tal saw without doubt that the young man was Ste’s son, they looked very much alike, “Hello, my name is Tal and the woman sitting beside your father is my wife, Sha. We’re flying a starship that was built on Earth.” Jan and Jee’s expression immediately turned fearful. “I know what you’re thinking, but Earth is not an enemy of the colonies and may be the only thing that saves them from the aliens currently attacking them. All of us on this ship are from the colonies and we’re doing all we can to prevent the colonies’ destruction. Any questions before I get back to work?”
“Is my father working for Earth?”
“He’s working to save the colonies by assisting Earth to come up with a way to defeat the aliens. Do you doubt your father’s loyalty to the defense of the colonies…and to you?”
Jee looked around Tal and saw Ste flying this ship at incredible speed. “I don’t know what to think.”
“Then do this. Hold your judgement until we get a moment to sit down and discuss this with you in detail.” Jee and Jan stared at him and Jee shrugged before nodding. Jan’s expression showed her doubt, but she nodded as well.”
Tal didn’t see any similarities between Ste and his daughter. She was blonde and blue-eyed and at least six-inches shorter than her father and brother. Tal turned and asked, “Sha, how long before we’ll be close enough to contact the Guild Master?”
“We’ll be in contact range within twenty minutes. Why do you ask?”
“Sha, I don’t want to go all the way to Americas. I want you to connect my intrusion device to your computer and let me know when it connects to a communication frequency on Americas.”
“Give it here.”
Tal went over to his chair and picked up the black bag. He handed it to Sha and she removed the intrusion device. Tal turned to Ste, “Ste, once we’re in contact range, stop Epy and be prepared to head back to Neptune.”
“Why are we going there?”
“We’re going to move the spy satellite from there. to the colonies.”
“What about that alien ship?”
“We’re going to remove it as well.”
• • •
Thirty-minutes later, Sha looked up, “I’m connected.”
“Transfer it to my console, please.”
Tal’s display lit up and he began typing. He pressed the enter button, sat back, and waited.
• • •
The Guild Master was sitting at his desk receiving hundreds of calls from guild members on Australia. He heard a loud ping and saw a flashing light on his computer screen. He lowered the volume of his communicator and pressed the receive button on his computer. A face appeared on the display and he heard, “It’s been a while Guild Master.”
“Who are you and how did you get on my private channel?!”
“I’m sorry. You’ve not seen me in this form.” Tal changed to the form he used as an assassin.
The Guild Master’s mouth fell open, “You’re dead!”
“Far from it, Guild Master. As you can see, I have access to your computer and learned about your plan to kill Number One and me. We removed the ones you sent to kill us and have been on Earth since then removing the agents you’ve sent to spy on Earth’s Military.”
“YOU’RE TRAITORS!!” Jee looked at Jan and saw her tension. This man was an assassin. Who had their father fallen in with?
“Far from it, Guild Master. However, before I continue this conversation, I need you to link in the President of the Council.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because I assume you want to do something about the aliens attacking Australia. You should know they have five more fleets due to arrive in six-weeks. The President should know that as well.”
“I still don’t…”
“Guild Master, in all your dealings with me, was I ever deceitful or dishonest with you?” The Guild Master hesitated and Tal smiled, “Link him in Guild Master; we’re on the same side this time.”
The Guild Master scrolled down a list and highlighted a name. He pressed enter and the President appeared on the monitor, “I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!! ONE OF THE COLONIES IS BEING ATTACKED!!” The President looked at Tal’s image on the display beside the Guild Master and asked, “WHO ARE YOU?!”
“I’m the one that killed your predecessor.” The President’s eyes flew wide open and Tal quickly continued, “You don’t need to worry about that getting out and the Guild Master believed that he killed me however, he didn’t. The point is, the colonies are under attack from an alien civilization and you must decide what to do about it.”
“How do you know about that?�
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“I was just close to Australia watching what was taking place and it’s not looking good for your fleet. The aliens have an edge in technology and your warships can’t get close enough to do them damage. There are also five more alien fleets that will arrive in six-weeks to attack five more colonies.”
The President was having a difficult time processing what Tal was telling him, “How do you know this?”
“We’ve translated their language and have been listening to one of their scouts for two-months. I’m going to send a copy of the translation program to the Guild Master at the end of our conversation and you can pass it on to your Fleet Commander.”
“When you say, ‘we have been listening’, who do you mean by ‘we’?”
“Earth, of course.”
“Why should I believe anything you say,” the President sneered.
“Don’t be stupid, Mr. President. Earth has a stardrive and has had it for more than forty-years. If they wanted to harm the colonies, they would have done it long ago.”
“Why haven’t they?”
“Because Earth feels guilt over abandoning the colonies before their nuclear war. Most of them think Earth deserves how your traders treated them. But that’s not important now; what is important, is that Earth discovered an alien ship orbiting Neptune decades ago scouting them. They hid they had a stardrive and started working on developing advanced weapons that could take the aliens on if they ever represented a danger. It now appears they are dangerous.”
“Have them come and assist us!!”
“That’s just it, Mr. President. Earth’s warships could wipe the floor with your fleet, but they aren’t able to take on those giant ships above Australia…at least not yet. They’re close but they’re several years from getting their warships ready to do it.”
“Why didn’t they tell us about that alien scout.”
“They felt that you would have immediately attacked it and the war would have started decades ago before anyone was ready for them. Subtlety is not something the colonies are good at.”
“So, you’re going to stand by and do nothing while we’re being attacked!?”
“Mr. President, the colonies aren’t the only thing at stake here…all of mankind is at risk of becoming extinct. You’ve got to focus on doing anything to insure humanity’s survival and Earth will enter the fight when its warships are ready.”
“When will that be?”
“Mr. President, we’ve made some discoveries that can possibly stand up to these aliens, but we’ve only just discovered them. Earth will need several years to update its fleets. In the meantime, you must find a way to slow the aliens down and start moving populations out of the colonies to search for other habitable planets. We may not win this war and mankind’s survival must be insured. There are millions of huge commercial haulers that can be used to move hundreds-of-thousands of people and the supplies needed to support them to other planets. They’ll have to leave and find another planet to colonize.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Mr. President, you must start moving people out of the colonies!”
“That’s not what I meant. We don’t need to search for habitable planets. We have the locations of hundreds of them and more than a hundred are in the Andromeda Galaxy.” Tal’s expression showed his shock. The President shrugged, “Contrary to what you might think, we aren’t dumb. The search for habitable planets didn’t stop with the fifty that were colonized. The plan was to continue colonizing other planets in the future, but we didn’t have the ones we were living on stable enough to start the process. We continued searching for them but by the time we were ready to make the effort, no one wanted to leave.”
“I’d highly recommend you start sending ships out to the ones you found in Andromeda, Mr. President.
“I’ll see what I can do. But I don’t see anything we can do to slow these aliens down.”
Tal smiled, “I don’t think these aliens are here to kill everyone on the planets they conquer. They’re going to land military forces and take control of the planet. If you can remove those forces, you will slow them down…a lot.”
“And just how am I going to accomplish that?”
“You can’t Mr. President, but he can,” Tal said nodding toward the Guild Master.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Guild Master, you have tens of thousands of assassins on every colony. Have them take out the landing forces. The aliens aren’t that different from us. I’ve mapped the critical parts of their anatomy where they can be easily killed; you send that information out to the assassins on the attacked colonies.”
“You obviously don’t know them very well,” the Guild Master sneered.
“I know them better than anyone in this conversation; I’m one of them. They are not motivated to defend the colonies; you’re going to have to offer to pay them to do it.”
“It would take a huge sum to get them to attack an alien!!” the Guild Master instantly replied.
The President turned to him, “What do you call a huge sum?”
The Guild Master sputtered, “At least…thirty…I mean forty…”
“What about fifty-thousand credits for each one killed?” the President asked.
“Who’s going to pay that, Mr. President?”
“There will be a new Tax on the holdings of the wealthiest people in the colonies. We’ll get the funds to pay them.”
Tal chuckled, “Come on, Guild Master. You know how to position this. The assassins all share the same trait, GREED! Sneak up on them with it. But you better hurry. I suspect all communications with Australia will be shut down quickly.”
The Guild Master thought about the proposal and turned to the President on the monitor, “I’ll handle it Mr. President.” The President disappeared from the display and the Guild Master looked at Tal, “What about Number One?”
“She’s sending her kisses to you.”
“I imagine they’re laced with poison.”
“Guild Master, both of us are better off now than we were. I guess you can say, no harm, no foul. Get this army you command in the fight. You and I are square, and you don’t have to worry about either of us seeking vengeance against you. I’m sending the translation program to you along with the vital places on the alien’s anatomy.”
The Guild Master nodded, and Tal disappeared from his display. He saw the data start coming in and he thought for a few moments as it completed downloading. He turned to his communicator and dialed up a general frequency on Australia. He sent a written message that a verbal communication would follow in ten-minutes. He sat back and though about how to say it.
• • •
Tee sat in a comfortable chair in a concrete room under a parking garage. He had the room built while the garage was being constructed and he killed the contractor afterwards to make sure no one ever learned of its existence. He re-read the message the Guild Master sent and saw at the end that only the highest-ranking assassin on the planet would be allowed to ask questions; everyone else was ordered to remain silent. He thought about it and decided that was ok, Ric was nobody’s push over. He looked at his guild communicator and it activated.
“I’m contacting all of you now because I believe our communications will soon be terminated. I want to update everyone on what’s going on. All of you probably know that Australia is being invaded by an alien civilization and the Colony Fleet is not going to be able to take them out. The military is working on the necessary technology to deal with them but, for the moment, I expect the planet to be invaded by the alien’s landing forces. I’ve been asked by the President of the Council to plead for you to do all you can to remove the alien’s forces that land on the planet…”
“Why would any of us ever take the risk of doing that, Guild Master?” a voice interrupted.
“I could say to do it to save the colonies and mankind.” The Guild Master replied.
Ric replied, “Get real. That’s the mi
litary’s job, not ours!”
“The President says he will pay you to do it.”
“You can’t spend it if you’re dead, Guild Master!”
“That’s true, Ric. Did I mention that the Council will pay fifty-thousand-credits for each alien killed?”
The channel was silent. Finally, Ric said softly, “Did I hear you correctly, fifty-thousand credits?”
“Just video all your kills, like you always do, and hold them until we take the planet back from the aliens.”
“And what if you don’t take it back?”
“Then it won’t matter because you’ll be dead with everyone else. But try to look at it on the positive side. When we win this war, you can retire and join the wealthy citizens in the colonies. I think that’s worth taking the risk.”
The contact ended, and an image of an alien’s body appeared on the screen showing its vital points to attack, then the channel went dark. Tee thought about it and looked around his hidden-room. He had enough supplies to last him for years. But, according to this image he pulled up, the aliens were quite vulnerable. Ummm…the image also said the aliens were susceptible to the same poisons as humans. He looked up at the wall-clock and saw nightfall was an hour away. He stood up and took off his clothes. He began putting on his dark, insulated black suit and started arming himself once it was on. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to go out and look around to see if there were any good locations to take a shot at an alien. He’d delay doing anything until a week or so after they landed; they’d be too cautious initially.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tal turned to Sha, “Send the translation program to the Guild Master.” Sha pressed some keys, looked up, and gave him the thumbs up. Tal nodded in acknowledgement and turned to Ste as he turned Epy around and started back toward Earth’s Solar System, “How long is it going to take us to get back to Neptune?”
“A little over three-days.” Ste replied.
Tal rubbed his neck, “Do you need a break, Ste?”
Ste looked at Jee and Jan, “No, I need to take some time to bring my children up to date on what’s happening. You and Sha take a break. Turn off your consoles so they can sit in your chairs.”
