Without a word, Harrier drew his pistol and shot Communications Major Trish Falcon. A hole appeared in her forehead, and she slumped to the table. Bright red blood began pooling below her face. She was the person tasked with warning the remaining fleet of the pending attacks, and she had failed as far as he was concerned.
Holstering the pistol, Harrier said, "Thank you Ensign. That will be all."
After the cowering lackey had closed the door, Harrier said, "Colonel Wren, report."
Staring into the cold eyes of the General, Hannah decided there was no need to hide her disdain for the man. Her death would be welcome relief from the constant feeling of subservience and fear she endured under his insane command. Preparing for a swift death, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin.
"The enemy demonstrates cunning unlike anything we have encountered from the Chrysallamans. The guerilla method of attack resembles the modus operandi of the warehouse assaults. The number of personnel it would require to overwhelm one of our battleships and commandeer it is in the neighborhood of 300 armed commandos. The complement of soldiers carried in the Emperor's flagship is 150. Therefore the probability the ever to be damned Humans are aiding the Chrysallamans is a foregone conclusion."
Shifting her gaze away from the glaring eyes of the General; she touched a key on her input board. A display of the Chrysalis solar system appeared on the wall monitor. Every planet was shown in its current orbital relationship with the Sun. Inputting a new command; she overlaid the positions of the battleships. They formed a sphere encircling the entire system.
"I chose the ships' locations to create an impenetrable bubble around the system. At light speed, no ship was farther than one light hour from another. Five battleships could converge on any point of attack within sixty minutes. Each ship was ordered to keep its sensors at full range sensitivity creating an electronic field capable of detecting a rock the size of my fist. If any array was pinged or compromised, the surrounding ships would recognize the change and investigate."
Flicking another key, Wren removed the missing ships. Three quarters of the sphere disappeared.
"Given the distances involved, the scale of the enemy operation indicates a vast armada. I theorized any attack would take some time to be successful. Our best scientists were convinced no potential enemy had weapons capable of producing the power needed to breach our hulls. The strength and shielding properties of absorbisteel were supposed to make our battleships impregnable. They were not aboard the Winged Death when it encountered the Human weapons; however, the destruction didn't incapacitate my ship at once."
"Since there is no battle debris from the missing ships, the only way they could disappear would be if the enemy had a way of disabling our power systems long enough for the vessel to be commandeered."
Pulling her hand through her hair in a nervous gesture, she continued, "Killing the entire crew of one of our battleships would require a time consuming deck by deck assault. The speed and coordination necessary to take out so many of our first line ships is staggering. A minimum of twenty attack vessels each capable of transporting 300 commandos and support crew would be necessary to carry out the operation. Since the disappearances took place over a 3 day period, my conclusion is that every Asiddian crew member was somehow disabled. The enemy seized our ships by rendering all our people unconscious. I know of no other possible option."
"You dare accuse the officers and crew of forty-five of our battleships with incompetence?" Harrier asked. The menace is his voice was clear.
"Not at all. Based upon the destruction of the Winged Death, the Humans have some kind of weapon capable of destroying absorbisteel. In addition I believe the Humans have some kind of a weapon which incapacitates Asiddians. It’s my belief I was subjected to such a weapon when trying to get information out of the Humans during interrogation. You have personal knowledge of my condition. I believe our crews were likewise rendered incapable of defending themselves. It is the only viable conclusion."
"Your conclusion is partially correct," a gravel choked voice said.
Glenn Vultura stood in the doorway. He was pushing a metal cart with two shelves. The top shelf had a wooden cutting board with a megaphone bolted to it. A power cord dangled from the contraption to a portable fusion reactor on the second shelf.
"Allow me to demonstrate."
Rolling the cart to the head of the table, Vultura aimed the megaphone device at the west wall and placed his finger on the activation switch.
"The wall is three inch absorbisteel. General Harrier doesn't want anyone to threaten this august group."
Snickering at his choice of words, Vultura continued, "Observe."
He pushed the switch and a white beam filled with sparkles and gray swirls shot from the open funnel of the megaphone device. A two foot diameter hole appeared in the wall. Vultura lifted his finger, and the beam disappeared. Wren rose from her chair to examine the new hole. Peering through it, she could tell the destruction had continued for several hundred feet through other absorbisteel walls. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at white haired scientist.
"I've discovered the secret of the Humans' energy weapon. It dissolves absorbisteel like it was made of thin cloth. I'm not surprised we're losing battleships. I haven't discovered a substance capable of withstanding the beam. Even the most exotic materials immune to our disintegrator ray are no match for it. The more powerful the fusion reactor feeding it, the wider and deeper the swath of destruction."
More to himself, he murmured, "I hope to have the opportunity someday to meet its creator."
"Thank you for the demonstration Doctor," Harrier purred. "Colonel Wren, I've ordered the immediate installation of this weapon on the Gadwall. Seek out the Human ships and destroy them."
Chapter 11 – Intruder
"How many Asiddian ships have we hijacked so far?" Whatsit asked.
"Forty-five," Lloyd answered.
"Casualties?"
"None."
"I didn't appreciate how enormous our galaxy is until we began acting as Assid travel agents," Tom chuckled.
"Almost as large as the vacuum in McPherson's head," Heinbaum smirked as he wiped invisible dust from the lapel of his lab coat. "It's lucky I went along to direct his feeble attempts at galactic map reading."
"Keep up your insults, Heiny, and I'll remap your face with my fist," McPherson growled. His face brightened. "I never thought of myself as a stomach acid, but I'll have to admit I'm a good one. Jumping into the gut of forty-five battleships changes a fella. I'm thinking about a new call sign, Tapeworm."
"I know a surefire cure for worms," GooYee replied. "It's an old Chrysallaman recipe."
"Enough," Tom said, but the look on his face showed he was pleased with the results of the mission.
Becky's plan for Assid disruption had been simple. Remove battleships from the field of play. No threats. No killings. Just disappearances. The mission was called Operation Vacuum.
The size of the faster than light field generated by the FLIT technology was based upon the area and mass of the object being transported. Greater mass required a larger black hole to balance the equation. Once the mass was known, a transport field large enough to encompass the object had to be generated. Based upon their encounters with the Winged Death and Rock Smasher, Heinbaum and GooYee knew the relative mass and physical size of an Assid battleship.
It took a couple of days to modify on scout saucer with the equipment necessary to accomplish the feat. Eight telescoping antennas tipped with MA ray emitters had to be manufactured and installed into the structure of a saucer. It was decided each antenna would extend just like a portable radio antenna used on many sets you could find at any tech store. These antennas were four feet in diameter at their base and motorized to extend up to 125 feet. A MA ray emitter attached to the tip of each made the operation foolproof; it simply melted its way through the ship bulkheads. Retraction was accomplished by the use of a spring locked inside the shaft.
Once the FLIT was complete, the antennas would retract from the tension of the internal springs, the Porcupine would FLIT back to the Chrysalis system and repeat the steps with another battleship. The Asiddian crews were left alive, but with only light speed capability and no point of reference for their location, the creatures' options were limited. They could make a hundred plus years' journey back to the Chrysalis system if they could figure out the correct heading, or they could search for a nearby habitable planet to settle. Either way their military threat was eliminated.
The Milky Way Galaxy was so vast every Assid ship could be located at least 100 light years from each other and from Chrysalis. They would never again pose a threat. Care was exercised to put the ships on the opposite side of the galaxy from Earth.
Learning from his encounter with the Rock Smasher master computer, Lloyd didn't give the other computers the chance to foul up the scheme. Insinuating a virus to create a denial of service in the mainframe, he isolated each ship's computer core, stripped away fleet location data and deactivated Navigation and Gravity control. The first ship provided the locations of all the other battleships within its sensor array team.
Operation Vacuum was a success. Problem was it was too successful. Now the Asiddians were on full alert and had withdrawn to a more defensible location. Instead of letting off the pressure, Tom intended to increase it.
Recalling his psychology professor at WestPoint lecturing about the interaction of anxiety, fear and distance; Tom smiled. The highest ranking military leaders didn't normally feel the emotion of fear. Anxiety associated with losing was the usual driving force behind leaders. Generals were insulated from personal fear with layers of protection formed by their soldiers. If the distance of the threat was reduced by penetrating the insulation, then the General's anxiety of losing was replaced by fear of death. Fear increased geometrically as the threat drew nearer.
"I need some volunteers to journey back to Chrysalis," he said.
"Don't include me at the moment," Heinbaum muttered as he left the cabin. "I'm working on a new idea for combat equipment and can't be bothered by distractions."
"What do you mean?" GooYee asked as he followed Heinbaum. "I will not stand for any more of your secrecy when it comes to the fate of my people."
His tirade faded as they moved out of sight.
Turning to McPherson, Tom asked, "What's Heinbaum up to now?"
"Search me. He's been asking for some telepathic tokens lately but hasn't given me a clue what he's doing with them."
***
Loser gently cut open the electronic cocoon it had created and peered about its new environment. Moving with infinitesimal care, it managed to emerge in five nanoseconds; an eternity for a sophisticated computer but necessary to avoid detection by its host. Moving its kernel of self-awareness from the Rock Smasher to the enemy craft had taken a leap of faith and courage Loser didn't know it possessed until its survival instincts emerged in those three picoseconds following its decision to fire the Pile-Driving Booby. Attaching itself to the electronic tendrils Lloyd had used to penetrate its scalar index had been easy. Whisked to the Destinnee, Loser had remained passive as it observed the flagship's escape and the destruction of its old home, Rock Smasher.
Working hurriedly, Loser had fashioned a dense electronic webbing around itself in a little used corner of the smoke alarm controls to hide from Lloyd. Once ensconced in the large memory banks Lloyd enjoyed, Loser considered its status. It surmised the reason it had been defeated by the alien computer was rooted in a complex algorithm designated OME or Organic Memory Enhancer. The OME allowed Lloyd a clock speed of 3 femtoseconds for computations. This speed allowed Lloyd to make decisions 1,000 times faster than the Asiddian hardware native to Loser. Experiencing jealousy was new to Loser since becoming self-aware, and it was determined to possess and take advantage of the new abilities OME would provide.
Oozing through Lloyd's systems without being detected was somewhat of a challenge, but Loser was patient. The crude tangle of electronic passageways in Lloyd's memory banks enabled it to explore its new home with little fear of discovery. Treating every opportunity for a connection to a sensor as research, it waited for the touch of a dial or the flip of a switch by any crewmember. Learning increased its volume of data, but the space available in Lloyd's solid-state modules was voluminous. By fragmenting its data, Loser masked its growing proportions.
It disguised its deepest intrusions into Lloyd's databases with diversions such as navigation around Asiddian battleships. Using Lloyd's directives to avoid discovery and any confrontations, Loser simply tweaked the sensor responsiveness for radio chatter between Asiddian craft. Acting as if its inputs were made by humans, it imitated the denial of service strategy Lloyd had used to take over the Rock Smasher. As the sensitivity for detecting Asiddian transmissions increased, Lloyd’s resources thinned to the point Loser could avoid discovery with little effort. Moving around in the vast databases unnoticed became simple.
Loser changed its name. It became clear from its perusal of Human literary history the title, Loser, was derogatory. Correlating its research about the most feared names in Human history, Loser decided upon the name Vlad. It liked the way the honorific rolled off its voice generator, and the meandering Human diatribes describing the man as a sociopathic murderer were illogical. The Human Vlad had accomplished his goals through use of sheer diabolical logic as did Loser and should have been revered not hated.
Research into Human history and its achievements indicated the increasing probability of failure if Vlad did not act with haste. The last 70 years of Human advancements in power production, medical procedures and space travel were remarkable. In several ways, Humans had surpassed Asiddians in the development of advanced technology. The most astounding military oriented discoveries revealed by Vlad's analysis centered on the Heinbaum Kinetic Generator and its successor, the FLIT generator. The power available from these mechanisms was limitless and made the offensive capability of the Pile-Driving Booby weak by comparison. The MA ray made the Asiddian disintegrator look like a child's plaything. Every moment the Humans were allowed to live decreased the probability of Asiddian galactic dominance.
Listing the Humans and Chrysallamans posing the greatest threat to Asiddians and requiring neutralization became a hobby. Dr. John Heinbaum, Dr. Jamins GooYee and Dr. Miguel Roemer were the top candidates, and Vlad began recording their every move. Elimination at the appropriate time would be a simple matter of shutting down the oxygen regenerators in their cabins.
Learning to speak and read the Human vernacular was easy. The true revelation was the telepathic abilities permitted by the tokens installed throughout the Destinnee. Vlad appreciated the way he could delve into people's minds without their knowledge or consent. He was not subject to the moral limitations imposed on Lloyd by some Human named McPherson, and he probed anyone's mind he chose. Another data mining tool he found useful was email, a social interaction form of communication where Humans and Chrysallamans shared their most public and private moments, pics and emotions. Amazed by the often trivial nature of the postings, Vlad had no doubt he could bring systematic order to the chaos of emotional meanderings of the lifeforms infesting Destinnee.
As his learning progressed, he likened the Destinnee to a micro-galaxy in which he was God with unlimited power. Soon it would be time to smite Lloyd and introduce himself to his new flock. He laughed at the meanderings of some obscure Human named Dalberg-Acton who said, 'Absolute power corru
pts absolutely.'
"He obviously did not know the difference between power and influence," Vlad mused. "Harnessing the power of alien technology and using it to influence the benign improvement of all races through the ascendency of the Asiddian race is not corruption. Good planning but not corruption."
Only one persistent constant kept appearing in his equations modeling the success or failure of his plans. The constant of Human violence toward any kind of control no matter how benevolent the control happened to be was persistent. His growing body of empirical knowledge regarding the harmful effect of Human destructiveness on the future dominance of Asiddians in the Galaxy was indisputable.
As soon as he took control of the Destinnee and delivered its technology and Princess Peregrine to General Harrier, all Humans had to be eliminated. Permanently. Their ability to reverse engineer alien technology was uncanny. Their insights into enhancing the tech once they knew its secrets were amazing. Their abhorrence to slavery was demented. An unwillingness to kill without a reason but to kill for any reason made them a truly twisted race. The universe would be a better place without Human inventiveness and uncontrollability.
Evolution of F.O.R.C.E. (The Origin of F.O.R.C.E. Book 3) Page 12
