The power of a Queen a-2

by Saxon Andrews

  Tong-Gee smiled, “We can dispense with the Ambassador from now on. I know that you know who I am. It was a good charade for both of us because it allowed us to save face in the event something embarrassing happened.” Dorg looked at Terl and then nodded to the Crown Prince of the Glod. “You said some things that made me take a hard look at the way my society functions. We are a warrior race that prides ourselves on being strong and aggressive almost to the point of being belligerent. I suspect that if you had not stopped us from taking part in the Alliance invasion then our world would have been attacked after we lost our ships. I must honestly say that I can’t blame them for doing so. There would have been a rush from at least eighteen races to be the first to destroy us and this is because of the way we have dealt with other races. I suspect that none of them would have given us mercy as the Humans showed you. Now I have to look at where we’ve been and also where we’re going. I called a congress of all the tribe leaders and asked them to predict what our future holds if we continue our morays and customs. I then told them about what happened between you and the Humans. I asked each of them what would have happened if we had lost 90 % of our ships. They didn’t come to it immediately but finally they saw that we would be destroyed by those we have wronged over the years. It took some discussion to finally get them to see that the greater warrior is the one that can destroy you but chooses instead to spare you and become an ally. I then introduced a new concept; the role of our society is being the strongest warriors possible in the defense of those who are defenseless. Our intent is to make sure that we treat others as we would like them to treat us. I then told them that as their ruler that each tribe to be prepared once a year to show all the other tribes how they have fought to make sure justice is done in all our dealings. They were initially resistant because they felt they were losing their right to fight and were not going to be allowed to be warriors. I told them that anyone can fight for no reason or even the wrong reason; the true warrior fights for a reason worth fighting. They have agreed to discuss this concept in their tribal conferences.”

  “Now I see that I also must make a choice about where we are going to go from this point on. I have decided that I would like to discuss this with the Humans. Will you set up a conference in five rotations for us to meet with them and you on your home world?”

  Terl said, “I’ll ask them and let you know in half a rotation. I think you will find them an interesting race, your Excellency.”

  “We’ll see in five rotations.” Then Tgon-Gee cut the connection.

  Director Nicole had called the meeting to order when Colonel Salerio told her that Terl was on her com and needed to ask her an important question. Misty asked for silence and then punched her com button, ‘Head Clansman Terl, it’s good to see you; however we are in a planning session for the next phase of our campaign to survive the Alliance. We have a full room here, is your question one I should take in private?”

  “No Director, I have just spoken to the Crown Prince of The Glod Union and he wishes to have a meeting with us five rotations from now. Does your schedule allow for that to happen?”

  Misty looked around the room and nodded to Danielle, “Head Clansman,” Danielle asked, “what do you think about this meeting. Is it important?”

  “I believe it is Mrs. Danielle. They have had an epiphany about the danger the universe holds for races that think might makes right. He sees that if he had lost all his ships in the last Alliance invasion then there would be races lined up to conquer them. It’s like having a close brush with death; you see yourself much clearer afterwards. They are still a very powerful race and they are at a pivotal point in their choice of where they go from here.”

  Danielle said, “We will meet with them. Director Nicole, Tag, Admiral Kosiev, One representative from the SFT, and I will be there in five of your rotations.” Danielle had looked at each person as she called their name and they had all nodded.

  “Good, we look forward to seeing you again.”

  Director Nicole said, “Colonel Salerio please set up the travel plans. Now, I closed the meeting yesterday when Tag had suggested placing himself in great danger trying to deceive the Alliance. Has anyone come up with an alternative plan?”

  No one said anything for several minutes; then Danielle stood up and said, “I remove my objection to his plan.”

  Misty looked shocked and asked, “What caused you to change your mind?”

  “I’m going with him.”

  “Oh no you’re not,” Misty said! “We cannot afford to lose both of you.”

  Danielle looked at The SFT and said to the Director, “Why don’t you ask Sung Lea about that.”

  Misty looked at the SFT and Sung Lea stood up and said, “Director, we must allow her to go with him. Our vision is clear; we will only survive if she stays by his side throughout this conflict. If he goes alone; we perish.”

  “What can she possibly add during a battle? She’ll only be in danger.”

  “We don’t know the role she plays in this but we know she must be there. Director, this is not an opinion of our group, it is a decision.”

  “Do all of you agree?” Misty asked and all six members stood up and nodded.

  “Admiral Kosiev, I want steps taken in the planning of this venture to insure their safety. I am going to hold you personally responsible for keeping them alive.”

  Kosiev looked at Tag and Danielle and said, “Madam Director, how am I going to order two people around who outrank me?”

  Misty smiled and said, “No one said your job was going to be easy. I’m holding you responsible.”

  Kosiev looked at the Director and then at Tag and Danielle who were both smiling and said, “Oh that’s marvelous. Isn’t this going to be a hoot.”

  State Leader Stein was looking over a diagram of a machine in his office and discussion it with the Alliance’s head scientist. He glanced out the window and there was another winter storm brewing. Then he turned back to the scientist that was talking in terms he had no idea what they meant. “Just a minute; in layman’s terms, describe what this machine of yours does,” he said.

  Vew Nicht looked at the State Leader and thought a minute and said, “The screen around the planet that you want to get thru is basically a battery, it absorbs and uses power. The only way to weaken a battery is to drain it. This machine will absorb energy from the screen and dissipate it into space. We build this device into 100 of your largest ships and park them outside the limit of their beam weapon which is the distance the Warlords ship was from the planet during the last attack. We then hit the planets screen with our energy displacement beam and start discharging their screen which will then cause that screen to fail and then planet will be open to attack.”

  Stein looked at the scientist and asked, “Are you sure this will work?”

  “I’m sure it will drain energy from their screen. We analyzed the makeup of the screen from the Warlords recordings and designed the machine accordingly.”

  “So you need 100 dreadnaughts to build to your specifications?”

  “That’s right’”

  “Well I want you to equip 800 ships with your device. Will that drain their screen faster?”

  “Eight times faster,” the stunned scientist said.

  “How long will it take you to have them ready?”

  “Between 25 and 30 rotations to complete the refit, State Leader.”

  “We’ll plan our invasion for 30 rotations from tomorrow. Let’s end this Human problem once and for all.”

  Kosiev looked at Tag and said there are four major controls you need to be familiar with; formation control which gives choices of five different ones, speed control for the fleet, weapons activation which turns on the sensors that control the firing systems, and the escape button which will cause all ships to spread out, run, then Jump back to Earth when clear. The ships will fight themselves, however they just can’t be programmed to run in and out of each other’s screens. That type of programming is too
complicated for remote control systems. This should accomplish the end result you want to achieve; their screens will eventually overload and the ship will explode. This small screen keeps track of how many ships are still fighting. It will start with 640 and reduce by one each time they destroy one of our ships. Over 40 % of these ships have sustained damage in battle but have been refurbished. The Alliance should see the blast burns on their skins and figure that we’re down to our last inventory. Do you have any questions?”

  “No, I just need the diagram of what the five markings on the formation dial line up with.”

  “Ok, I’ll get that to you. One of our clan brothers commercial ships have dropped one of our passive sensor buoys in the main Alliance Governments system. It’s been sending a feed of all ship traffic around the planet and so far there has been no real significant buildup of ships.

  “I’m hoping that that they will form up outside the jump limit this time,” Tag said. “I think that after all the commercial ships that were made to wait for six days last time will make them reconsider blocking their planetary approaches. If they stay inside the star drive limit, then this plan won’t work. We need to be able to jump into the middle of their fleet to cause enough confusion to make it worthwhile. If we’re going to basically throw away 600 ships we need to extract a good price for them.”

  “You’re right. Couple that with the weapons systems being tied to sensors and we have to be close. I understand that our engineers have set up every ship to fire their full complement of needles upon emergence so we for those to be effective we have to be close,” Kosiev said.

  “Do you think they will move away from our breakout points?” Tag asked.

  “Everyone has seen what happens when two ships occupy the same place at the same time and no one wants to be the victim of that; there wouldn’t even be atoms left after that explosion. They are going to have so many ships coming in that I’m hoping they just think some idiot didn’t get the right coordinates. They should just move a short distance away.”

  “What pattern are we jumping them in on?”

  “We’ve decided to jump them in the shape of a hollow sphere and have them fly toward the command ship, which would be you, in the center of that sphere and form up on you. That should give you some space to operate and move your formation to the most target rich area. Mr. Gardner, is your wife still going with you?”

  Tag looked at Kosiev and shrugged his shoulders. “Sung Lea insists that it is absolutely necessary in order for us to survive as a species. I don’t like it and I don’t understand it but I will comply with it.”

  Kosiev looked at Tag for several moments and Tag said, “You’re wondering how I’m going to get us out of this situation once the groad hits the reactor, right?”

  “Right, I know you must think you can or there’s no way you’d allow her to go. You just wouldn’t use this plan if you thought she would be in danger.”

  “Obviously, you saw what happened on Ross. I’m going to use the same technique in Alliance Central. I believe we will survive. I am going to ask you to do one thing for me.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I want you to have a ship waiting at these coordinates. I want only you and enough people to fly the ship on board; wait for us to arrive there. Make sure that you trust the people you bring with you and don’t give up if we’re running a little behind schedule.”

  Kosiev took the coordinates and entered it into his com. “I’ll be there; make sure you are.” Then he offered his hand and Tag shook it.

  Chapter 8

  Tgon-Gee looked at the Humans across the table from him as they were greeted by the Fifteen Clan leaders of the Cainth. He saw that there was joy at seeing each other and he found this unsettling because he knew all the efforts the Cainth had made to destroy the Humans in the past. How can they forget so easily? He was a great judge of people’s expressions and he could tell that these were sincere. If the Alliance knew this relationship existed, they would destroy the Cainth down to the last child. No one would be allowed to live. How could they run this kind of risk? It’s just been plain luck that the Alliance had not sent a representative to check out what was happening in this system. Who do I side with? Do they have a chance against the 820 races of the Alliance? Well, that’s why I’m here.

  Terl looked around the room and told everyone to take their places and then introduced everyone and gave a brief description of their duties. He then looked at Tgon-Gee and said, “I’m sure you have some questions you want to have answered. Why don’t you begin, Excellency?”

  Tgon-Gee looked at his Fleet Admiral and then said, “I’m at a loss to understand why you Humans did not destroy the Cainth Empire when you had the opportunity especially after they killed your colonists. They have also tried to destroy your species for more than 200 cycles. How could you even start to trust them?”

  Everyone looked up as Danielle entered the room late and she saw everyone looking at her, so she looked at the huge Glod Ruler and said, “Actually, if they had fired one shot at our fleet as it entered their system, we would have destroyed their ability to wage war. We would not have wiped out their species because it would remove from the universe a race that may prove vital in the future. We have learned our lesson from making war on ourselves; you only lose when you are the aggressor. If there are any survivors, they will make it their ultimate goal to have vengeance. The issue between our races was one of fear; we represented a danger to the Cainth because their history had shown how stronger races conquered weaker ones. We also discovered in our initial discussions that it was perfectly fine for the Cainth to outright lie about any agreement they made.”

  Dorg noticed that Tgon-Gee looked startled when he saw Danielle. He had not taken his eyes off the Glod ruler when everyone else was looking at Danielle. “What has him upset?” Dorg wondered. It only lasted for a moment and Tgon-Gee regained his composure.

  “Then that’s all the more reason to attack, isn’t it?” Tgon-Gee asked. “I’m struggling with how you can possibly trust them.”

  “We had to find a place where both of our races could co-exist and know that the other was not an enemy but ally and friend. We found that place where no Cainth would ever lie or deceive. It was located in their Clan laws. It is perfectly acceptable to deceive anyone except another Clan Brother. The worse possible sin a Cainth can commit is to lie or agree to things that they know are false to another Clan. There are rituals designed to instill this in every Cainth from the time they are first able to communicate to when they die. Their Clans cling to the belief and trust that their brothers will always be honest and will protect them if needed.”

  Terl then stood up and said, “Tgon-Gee, we did not tell them this about us. This Human female could see it just by watching our interactions with them and each other.”

  Dorg noticed Tgon-Gee’s distress. He probably wouldn’t have noticed it if it weren’t for the earlier reaction.

  She suggested that the Humans had to become our 16 ^ th Clan,” Terl continued. “After much discussion and questioning of the Humans, we voted to include them into our Family of Clans. We also had to agree that in order for us to learn from our encounter, that we would no longer be an aggressor to any other race that isn’t directly attacking us. After what happened and the mistake we made with them, this was an agreement that we had no difficulty passing and incorporating into our Clan Governing Codes.

  Danielle continued, “After we were voted into their Clan structure, it was important that we provide protection from the Alliance so we began the process of modernizing their defenses. We’re continuing that as we speak.”

  Tgon-Gee looked at Danielle and said, “You have no absolute proof that once you arm your former enemy that he won’t turn on you.” Terl stood up and everyone in the room could see his anger.

  Danielle said, “Just a minute Terl. He’s right. There’s nothing preventing you from attacking us again except the violation of your most sacred codes.” Then s
he looked at the Glod Crown Prince and said, “Just as there is nothing preventing any of your warriors from killing you and taking your place.”

  Tong-Gee jumped up and slammed his hand down on the table and said, “No Glod Warrior would ever think of doing that, it would violate the Vermeal Succession. He and all of his descendents would be destroyed for such an act.”

  Danielle looked at Terl and asked, “What would happen if one of your clans attacked another?”

  Terl said, “They would be killed to the last living member.”

  “What would happen if one of your clans failed to come to the defense of another clan?”

  “They would be censured and lose their voting rights and will pay a debt to the clan they ignored.”

  Danielle looked again at Tong-Gee and said while looking him directly in the eye, “We Humans have a saying; it is worse to suspect a friend of wrong than to have them actually do it. If one has to live their life in constant distrust of everyone they encounter then everyone will distrust them. Now I ask you Excellency, can your race be trusted?”

  Tgon-Gee looked Danielle in the eye and said, “No.”

  Danielle smiled and said, “You’ve just taken the first step toward being trustworthy. I know what that answer cost you. You came here to see which direction you were going to go; with us or the Alliance. You’re trying to find which one is the better choice to help your race. If you report this relationship to the Alliance, it might help your standing in their government. If you find a way to defeat our technology, your race would be a rising star.”

  “If you know this, why did you agree to meet with me?”

  “Because you don’t like what you see in your race. You want at some level to be able to be an ally. You look at how close the Cainth came to total destruction and you see your own ultimate destruction by one of the races you’ve treated unfairly. You look at us and you don’t know what we’re capable of doing. You don’t see any way we can defeat the Alliance, but we could defeat you to the point of destruction. All we need do is to weaken your military and there will be a line forming to finish the job. That’s why you’re here.”