Mace opened a comm. “Stark, tell me the good news.”
Stark replied, “The first delivery of gatrellium is in transit. Thirty dreadnoughts are parked in Earth orbit. The remainder will be delivered as the gatrellium arrives at Canto.”
“At least tell me you have crews aboard getting familiar with those ships.”
Stark nodded. “Crews are aboard. I expect we’ll be ready to send them to Divinia before the day is out.”
Mace asked, “Why the wait? You should have the rest of the gatrellium to Canto in an hour or less.”
Stark sighed. “I won’t be sending these men and women to their immediate deaths, Mr. Hardy. They will be given at least a minimum amount of time to train before being thrown to the wolves.”
Mace returned an irritated stare. “Not one minute longer than is necessary, Stark. And Divinia will be the destination. Croawla won’t be with us much longer.”
When the ground-based station count had dropped to twenty remaining, a dejected King Jasper Collins made the call. The fleet was to pull back to Divinia. The three and a half billion Targarian citizens on Croawla would now be at the mercy of the Karthians. Aerial bombardments had already begun before the last of the Targarian ships slipped away.
A teary-eyed Jasper Collins was on the comm, broadcasting from the throne room on the Organ Cave.
“I failed them. I failed my people.”
Mace replied, “You did the best with what you had. And I know this news is late, but we should have two hundred UF dreadnoughts joining us at Divinia. They’ll be crewed by Humans… Stark’s people. I made a deal for some of the captured gatrellium—way more than I would have liked, but worth it, given our situation. I hope to have them at Divinia by the end of the Earth day at the cave.”
Jasper looked at his holo-display. “That’s seven hours.”
Mace replied, “And the crews are green. I don’t think those ships have the best of shielding, but they do have a powerful cannon.”
Mace stood and paced about his bridge. “I’m considering making an offer for some of those microwave stations he has positioned around Earth. I’m fairly certain he won’t go for that, though. He won’t move Earth’s fleet here. Why would he send the stations?”
Jasper said, “What about the stations at Canto? Would Knuttin be interested in selling them to us? They already have the protection of the UF. They don’t need them.”
Mace looked over at Johnny. “See if you can open a comm to Mr. Knuttin.”
Seconds later, it was passed to Mace. “Mr. Knuttin, I have another proposal for you. The orbital microwave stations we put up at Canto. Would you be willing to sell them to us?”
Frado thought for a moment. “I would of course have to consult with our authorities on that. They are nice to have from a comfort standpoint, but totally unnecessary now. Let me have a conversation and I’ll be back in touch.”
Mace asked, “You have the coordinates for here?”
Frado nodded. “They are coming through your comm. I assume the need is urgent?”
Mace nodded. “Very.”
Frado bowed. “I’ll see to it immediately.”
Fifteen minutes later a hail came back. “Mr. Hardy, good news. The council has agreed.”
“Tell me what you feel is fair.”
Frado smiled. “There are two hundred forty stations. I would think one quarter ton per station would be more than fair.”
Mace raised his eyebrows. “One quarter ton per? Deal. I was expecting more given our situation.”
Frado said, “This is a private sale, Mr. Hardy, directly to the corporation, which you still own 24 percent of. If you would prefer, I could deduct the appropriate amount of credits from your accounts here on Canto.”
Mace nodded. “That would save me a lot of effort. Is there enough there?”
Frado nodded. “We are currently offering those stations in our catalog for five million credits each. Our cost is roughly two. With that number of stations, it would appear you have ample credits to cover the transaction without offering gatrellium.”
Mace asked, “What do we have in there?”
“Seven hundred eighty million credits or so. Our quarterly dividend will be issued in a few days time. We have had a very profitable quarter, I might add.”
“Take the credits as necessary, Mr. Knuttin. I wouldn’t suppose you could sell us any from the catalog also?”
Frado smiled. “I happen to have fifty units in inventory.”
Mace nodded. “We’ll take them. Charge what you feel is fair. When can we take delivery?”
“Immediately if you like. I can have shuttles up to remove the crews in an hour’s time.”
“I like. Tell me where to open a wormhole and we’ll come get them.”
Frado said, “If you would be willing to cover our use of gatrellium, I would be happy to have them delivered.”
Mace replied, “You tell me how much you used and I’ll gladly double it. I’ll have it waiting here at Divinia when they get here.”
Frado bowed. “Expect the deliveries shortly.”
Mace ordered an ore hauler to bring forward five hundred tons of gatrellium. Ninety minutes later, the first of the stations arrived.
Frado came over a comm. “Mr. Hardy, our gatrellium use for this delivery was only three hundred kilograms. This is far too much.”
Mace replied, “OK, consider this: would the corporation like to purchase the remainder of the five hundred tons?”
Frado nodded. “Very much so.”
“Take what you would consider a fair acquisition cost, deposit that in our account, and the corporation can use the rest or sell it or whatever you like.”
Frado grinned. “Mr. Hardy, this will keep our exploration fleet running for some time. You’ve just made me an extremely happy Kohamian.”
Mace said, “When this is all over, if we survive, I may be able to sell you more.”
Two hundred ninety space-based microwave stations sat waiting for crews. Shuttles were dispatched and the stations manned. Several hours later, a wormhole opened from Earth and two hundred UF dreadnoughts slipped through to Divinia space.
Jasper said, “I can’t thank you enough for pulling this together.”
Mace winced. “Sadly, I think it’s Stark who deserves the credit. We could have done this ourselves if we’d thought of it, but we didn’t.”
Jasper scowled. “I won’t be praising that lowlife anytime soon. With these new resources, and had he committed the fleet to the defense of Croawla, we might have been able to drive them back. They lost nearly six hundred ships to our hundred thirty-eight, and some of those are in repairs.”
“How many we have left?”
Jasper frowned. “One hundred five Collins and seventy-seven cruisers. And the Rogers.”
“And they have thirteen hundred?”
Jasper nodded. “Roughly.”
“Any progress from Mr. Moskowitz with the wormhole weapons?”
Jasper waved a hand. “You’ll have to ask him yourself. I pissed him off earlier after yelling at him for them not being done. I was desperate, didn’t mean what I said, but he has no further interest in talking to me.”
Mace chuckled. “I can’t see him getting mad. You must have really wound him up. I’ll give him a look-in and let you know where we’re at. I wouldn’t worry about him getting mad at you. He knows the situation. I’m sure it’s already forgotten.”
“I hope so. I like the Doc. He didn’t deserve what I unleashed on him.”
Mace hopped a shuttle down to Yentis. He was soon standing in the lab behind Jeff Moskowitz. “Doc, how we looking?”
Jeff turned. “You come to yell at me, too?”
Mace laughed. “No. And Mr. Collins is sorry for whatever he said. The stress of all this has us all on edge.”
“True, but there are some things that can’t be unsaid. I’m afraid Mr. Collins burned some bridges.”
Mace looked Jeff in the face. “When’s th
e last time you slept?”
Jeff frowned. “Thirty-eight hours ago. I had a four hour nap.”
Mace put his hand on his shoulder. “Killing yourself with stimulants doesn’t help us. You need sleep.”
Jeff shook his head. “Not happening for at least a few more hours. Will take the last boost that long to wear off.”
Mace looked at the electronics spread across a table. “How’s it looking?”
Jeff scowled. “We have an issue in this section that I can’t seem to resolve. There’s a feedback loop that may be taking multiple paths at different times. Every adjustment I make, it shows up from another circuit. Adjust there and it comes back here.”
“Is this the only issue?”
“No. Gnaga and his crew are having fits with the injector mechanism in the other room. And trust me, you don’t want to go in there. They haven’t bathed in days and are putting off quite a stench. I’m starting to smell a bit ripe myself.”
Mace looked over the table. Could your feedback be transmitted over the air?”
Jeff grabbed Mace by the arms. “Great Scott! That’s it! You’ve solved it!”
Mace stepped back with a half grin. “Really?”
Jeff laughed. “I’m sorry, no. I’m just a little punchy. I’ve checked repeatedly for broadcast interference and there is none.”
Mace half smiled. “OK. I’ll take that as a ‘time to leave’ signal. If you need anything, let us know. Oh, and make a few minutes available to think about an evac plan. The fighting here could start any day, and it may only last a day. So the minute they show, you need to be ready to move to Earth. Whatever you can’t take with you, make plans to destroy. We don’t want to leave them any gifts.”
Jeff nodded. “I’ll work on that. Thanks.”
A second later, Jeff Moskowitz’ attention was already focused again on the work at hand. Mace walked back to the shuttle and was soon back on the bridge of the Rogers. The defense of Divinia was organized. It was now just a waiting game.
Chapter 27
*
Jasper came over the comm. “We have everything in place. The stations are all manned. Stark’s crews on those dreadnoughts are continuously running through simulations. Thanks for bringing this together. It at least gives us a fighting chance.”
Mace said, “We do have one more option.”
Jasper asked, “What’s that?”
“We could start moving your people to Earth. It’s only four billion here. With Earth’s current population, it wouldn’t even be crowded.”
For several seconds, Jasper wasn’t sure how to respond. “Would Stark allow it?”
“One way to find out. We have the gatrellium to spare. We could open a wormhole just above the atmosphere on both planets and put every shuttle we have to use moving bodies. Should I give Stark a comm?”
Jasper sighed. “I suppose that would be best. If we fail here, they would all be wiped out. At least back there they have one more shot at survival.”
Mace opened a comm. “Stark, I have a new proposal. We’d like to start sending Targarian civilians through to Earth. We’ll send enough food to support them and they’ll be responsible for building their own housing.”
Stark replied, “And what do we get in return?”
Mace pulled back. “In return? These people are fighting for your survival out here. The return is common decency among friendly species.”
Stark thought for a moment. “The answer is no. We’ve set up our defenses. We’ve partitioned our lands. We don’t have the room.”
Mace replied angrily, “Don’t have the room? All you have is room. I don’t care if you turn over the Sahara for their use. Or Antarctica. They are capable of taking care of themselves.”
Stark said, “Perhaps they can make use of the Moon or Mars.”
Mace growled. “You know full well they don’t have time to establish that kind of a colony. And they’d have no protection if the Karthians made it to Earth.”
Jasper cut in. “No longer matters. We have wormholes opening. The Karthians are coming through.”
Mace stared at the silhouetted image of Stark. “I’ll deal with you later.”
Stark replied, “I look forward to our exchange.”
The comm closed. The Karthian ships numbered thirteen hundred eighty-six, plus the great station. As they began to form up, another set of wormholes opened and four hundred additional ships came through.
Mace’s heart sank. He knew full well what was coming. A minute later, word came from Croawla that the extermination there was complete.
Mace opened a comm to Jeff Moskowitz. “Doc, time to go. Start moving everything you can. And don’t hesitate. They could be hitting that city at the same time we’re fighting them. We need you to get safely back to Earth. Not to add any pressure, but that weapon might be our only hope. The one we have, I can’t use with solar flares anymore. They just move out of the way.”
“We’re packing up. I expect to be on a shuttle within two hours.”
Mace frowned. “You may not have two hours, Doc. Just make sure you get all evidence of this experiment moved.”
Mace closed the comm. “I’m wondering if we should be down there helping.”
Johnny replied, “They aren’t attacking yet. We have time.”
Moments later, the Karthian fleet charged forward. The UF dreadnoughts, with their longer range weapons, fired first, knocking out six of the invading cruisers. The Karthians countered by focusing half their ships on this new group. The dreadnoughts managed two additional volleys before the Karthians returned fire. Nearly nine hundred cruisers fired at once, ripping into the dreadnoughts and taking nearly a third offline.
Mace said, “Jasper, the armor on those dreadnoughts is crap. They aren’t gonna hold up.”
Jasper replied, “Not much we can do. We have to protect these stations.”
Another strong volley from the Karthians cut the dreadnought fleet in half. The Human commander, provided by Stark, ordered a retreat. The hundred and two remaining ships would sit on the periphery of the battle and attempt to pick away at the ships they could reach. The Karthians quickly refocused efforts on the microwave stations. Targarian attempts were made to use the holo-images of attached Karthian shuttles, but this time the attempts were failures.
The Rogers circled a pair of cruisers as Johnny, Jane, and Jenny boarded one shuttle and Jordan Crawford’s team another. Mace worked the wormhole weapon as Hans Mueller fired the Rogers’ cannons. The crew and their ship were effective, but hardly enough to counter the overwhelming numbers the Karthians had once again fielded. Several hundred cruisers broke off from the main fight and began to bombard cities below.
Mace opened a comm. “Doc, tell me you’re on your way!”
Jeff was frantically carrying a box of drawings. “We’ve only managed half of what we need.”
Mace sighed. “Crap. Johnny, Mr. Crawford, I need you back aboard when you finish each of your ships.”
“Wrapping up now,” replied Jordan. “Are we pulling back already?”
Mace shook his head. “No. We have to rescue our scientists. They’re still attempting to move. Get back ASAP. We’re gonna have to extract them ourselves. This fight is going bad in a hurry.”
Johnny replied, “Two minutes and we’re on our way!”
The Rogers circled and fired as her two shuttles moved back to the docking bays.
Once aboard, Mace gave the next order. “Set us down right beside the lab building, Mr. Hobbs. I want every free crewman down that ramp to help move them out!”
Mace said, “Doc, we’ll be down there with help in a minute. Direct us as to what needs moving. This whole defense is about to collapse. A third of those stations are already down.”
Jeff replied, “I’ll be here. I need help with the prototype and our new build. The equipment and data should be clear by the time you arrive.”
Mace stood to hustle toward the ramp. Three Karthian cruisers fired their weapons at
once, all impacting the hull in close proximity. A hard jerk of the Rogers’ hull launched Mace across the bridge and slammed him to the deck. He pulled himself up, shaking off the incident as he proceeded to run toward the main ramp.
The Rogers moved through Divinia’s atmosphere as a giant ball of flame before quickly slowing as it arrived above the lab. Fifteen volunteers streamed down the ramp and into the lab building.
Jeff gave directions. “I need four of you over here. Pick up this frame. And be careful, the components are not fully fastened down and we need them intact. I need two over here for these barrels, and six at this table. Just carry everything you can. The rest of you, help me with this injection structure. It’s heavy. Will take us all to lift it.”
The items were moved as plasma blasts impacted the buildings in and around the lab complex. Smoke plumes were rising from the great blue city as many of its inhabitants ran about the streets. Chaos had come to the once peaceful center of the Targarian Empire.
The heavy structure was carried up the ramp and into the waiting Rogers. As it was set on the deck, a Karthian plasma round found impacted the roof of the lab building, collapsing a large section, shrapnel flying in every direction.
Mace looked around and yelled, “Where’s the Doc?”
Jeff stepped from behind the structure. “Here.”
“Close up that ramp and let’s get out of here.”
Jeff stepped forward. “No! The prototype is still in there!”
Mace growled. “Johnny, come with me. Doc, you stay here and secure this stuff. Jenny, bring out a shuttle.”
Mace opened a comm to the bridge. “Mr. Hobbs, as soon as my boots hit the ground I want you up and out of here. We’ll follow in the shuttle.”
Liam replied as a plasma blast rumbled the hull. “Will be my pleasure.”
Mace and Johnny jumped from the bottom of the ramp as it began to close. Jenny slipped out of docking bay one, settling on the ground just outside the lab as the leader of the free Humans and his sidekick entered the failing structure.
Mace said, “Grrr. Hallway’s blocked. We’ll have to go around.”
HADRON Chaos Page 25
