“Commander, this is an immense fleet you have, but it appears to be all military.”
“Yes, our civilian ships are many light years away out of danger.”
“Our translators do not do justice to our words. You said you are from a Galaxy called Milky Way.”
“Newman” Inman communicated through his comlink.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Please bring me a navigation node we can use to show our visitors where we are and where the enemy ships are coming from.”
Inman switched on the node to display the holographic image of the immediate area their ships occupied in space. Waving opposing index fingers inward the view on the hologram expanded outward to reveal both the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies as well as other surrounding galaxies. Inman withdrew his hands and pointed out the Milky Way galaxy and the general location of earth and then again drilled down to their location in Andromeda.
“This red spot here represents the enemy on course to intercept us; these blue spots are our combined ships. Light surrounding the red ship tells us the ships are moving at warp speed. If I touch them like this, a detail screen pops up and gives us more information. As you can see, there are fourteen ships traveling at warp three armed with nuclear, directed energy and projectile weapons.”
“Commander Inman, how can it be your species can travel such great distances. We did not believe FTL travel was even possible and you have come from another galaxy.”
“We have been in space a very long time, you are correct, it is not possible to travel faster than light, but it is possible to use other methods of travel than just velocity.”
“I am afraid I do not understand. We are on a journey to try and reach another planet in our solar system, and you traveled from your galaxy in less than a lifetime.”
“Well, there are many things we will have to explain to you over time, for now maybe we should talk about what to do about our encroaching enemy.”
“Yes Commander, I agree.”
The Woles speech sounded a bit Asian, maybe because they looked Asian. The Woles singsong dialect made their species very engaging.
The Woles commander was reluctant to stand and fight. He was much more worried about his home planet and their safety then he was their safety. Their families were all back at home, and they were passionate about finding a way to keep them safe.
Inman decided the Titan they would put the tiny Woles ships in tow and use the Hopper drive to take them out of harm’s way. From a safe distance, they would monitor the actions of the aggressors to determine how vulnerable the Woles home world was.
Inman directed other ships in his command to surround the Woles fleet and shell them inside the fleet under tow. As soon as the enemy dropped out of warp they would not find the small Woles fleet they expected but the enormous Titan and her battle group.
“Cerro, I want to deploy the fighter shuttles before their arrival, but not outside the shells. Let’s just let them see the numbers and see if they will turn tail and run. I don’t want to fire upon them unless we have to, and I don’t want to destroy anything. The Woles are conscientious objectors, and they would rather become slaves then kill another life form, so let’s just give them a show of power. We will transfer every weapon they fire at us directly in front of their view. If they hit us hard enough or if they launch anything nuclear I will have Newman jump us out of here.”
“Aye aye, sir” replied Cerro.
The enemy ships dropped out of warp within ten miles of the fleet. Upon seeing the fleet, they dispersed their warships as to flank the Titan’s battle group. The sheer size of Titan’s Armada should have warned them off; instead, it seemed to make them all the more aggressive.
Within seconds they were upon the fleet firing projectiles which disintegrated instantly upon contact with the shells. Every time the enemy fired, the titan's TRays removed the weapon from the firing ship and put it into open space in full view of the attacking ship. The tactic did not detour them; instantly they went to firing directed energy weapons. Much more substantial and rocking the Titan but still not even weakening the ships shell they were instantly plucked from the enemy ship and sent floating into space before their eyes.
“Wilson, port a couple of the directed energy weapons to the arrival bay on the Titan and port the entire crew on the bridge of the largest ship to the brig, let's meet our enemy. Newman, get us out of here.”
Instantly the entire battle group was sitting peacefully light years away in space alongside the Woles home world.
“Cerro, make sure we track their fleet, I want to know their destination.”
“They are already at warp headed right at us; they will be here in about two days.”
Inman and Loken were startled; this was the worst of all outcomes. The options were simple, destroy the enemy, give the Woles the technology to defend themselves or remove the remaining Woles population from their planet and take them to safety.
Commander Loken was adamant his government would not fight. However, they had no problem taking on defensive technology. Inman had no intention of turning over any technology to them or anyone else. Supplying advanced technology to a species not already working on it did not seem like the right thing to do.
Fighting another species battles for them did not seem like an option the executive team was willing to take which left them with the only viable option, evacuate the entire Woles population. Where to evacuate them to was an entirely different question.
The executive team, representatives from the Woles Government and Commander Loken met on the Titan to discuss their options and make preparations.
“Commander Inman I would like to introduce you to our high counsel's chairman, this is Prime Minister Lindo,” said Commander Loken.
“Commander Inman, I am most honored and the Wholes people extend our gratitude for the kindness you and your crew have shown our people in the short time we have been with you” commented the Prime Minister.
“You are welcome Prime Minister; it is a pleasure to meet and work with you. Sir, we have some pressing matters to discuss with you. Upon considering all the options available to us, we have concluded we must start evacuations of your people from the planet to our ships immediately. We believe it will take all of the time we have before the enemy arrives to get you aboard and to safety. We can fight them off once they arrive but we cannot guarantee the safety of those remaining on the planet” reported Commander Inman.
“Are there no other options Commander? We have thousands of years of history in our planet, what if the enemy decides to destroy our world, our culture, our society?”
“Mr. Prime Minister, the other option is to stand and fight, which we can do, but we will not fight them on our own. Your people must willingly participate in the process, we will not annihilate the fleet pursuing you without your participation, to do so would violate our species interaction doctrine” stated Inman, “we do not have to stand and fight at this point, you do. We must, however, lend our support in protecting you if you request it. Our help will come in the form of defensive weapons operated jointly by our two species, or in the evacuation of your people, culture, and histories. I must know now sir.”
“We are very thankful Commander. May I ask a question before I make a decision?”
“Yes of course, but you must quickly decide Mr. Prime Minister.”
“Where would we evacuate to Commander?”
“Initially we would board you on our fleet ships, your population will fit on the ships we have here without any problem, and we can put your artifacts on an asteroid and put the asteroid in tow. We have the capability to transport anything you give us a location to directly to the asteroid one of our ships is retrieving as we speak; it will be here within the hour. Once we get out of the range of those in pursuit of us, we will take you to an inhabitable planet and help you establish a new homeworld.”
“Is there such a world?”
“Many Prime Minister, the bulk of our f
leet is in orbit around a beautiful uninhabited world as we speak, we will be there in about one month.”
“The ruling body of our counsel has given me sole discretion in this decision, and I choose to evacuate.”
“Sir I trust you will understand we will have to keep you and your people in isolation until we can discover methods of detecting anything which might infect our population.”
“Certainly Commander, we have rid our entire society of sickness and disease over a thousand years ago. Do your species suffer from illnesses?”
“Not illness, only accidental injuries.”
“Good, we should be fine” replied the Prime Minister.
“Please transport as many of your people as possible to your ships, we will put them in tow, and the familiar surroundings will be comfortable for your people. The area the rest of your people will be transported to will look like the inside of a large iron container. We will try our best to equip the containers with your home world furnishings, but our priority is getting everyone off the planet. Once the evacuation is complete, we will transport anything you designate as important to the ship. We will save the less important things on the asteroid” replied Inman.
“Cerro, identify life forms and start moving them to the arrival bay as soon as the Prime Minister has had a chance to notify his people” instructed Inman.
“Aye aye, sir” retorted Cerro.
For two days crews of both races worked frantically to load the Woles onto their ships and into the arrival and cargo bays of each of the ships. The synthesizers were able to reproduce the Woles home world foods, a little flat in taste as they would report, but they never complained.
“The Woles people are a philosophical people” Will thinks to himself, “they never complain, always have a kind word and never seem to have ulterior motives, a little unnerving.”
Two days passed quickly, and JRay sensors reported the alien pursuers would be in firing range within the hour.
“Commander Loken” Inman paged over his comlink.
“Yes, Commander” replied Loken.
“What is our status, we have about an hour till the enemy is on top of us.”
“We are completing the collection of our historical archives from our hall of antiquities. I believe it will be close.”
“Please contact me the moment everything is on board or in tow” Inman requested.
“Yes, I will” replied Loken.
An hour passed and the dreaded page came, “they are on us, Commander.”
“Cerro, keep a close eye on our shell integrity, any sign of weakening and I want us out of here. I just received reports we have all the Woles population accounted for, we are waiting on the porting of the rest of the historical library, if possible I don’t want any of it left behind.”
Within a few seconds, the enemy ships began bombarding the Woles home world; immense explosions rocked the planet as nuclear devices lit up the surface of the planet.
“We are taking fire sir, shell integrity is holding, but we are going to lose cohesion within the next five minutes, they are hitting us very hard.”
“Fire up the TRay’s and port the weapons on the lead ship into deep space” commanded Inman.
“Gladly” Cerro replied.
“Send in the shuttle fighters to draw away fire from the fleet” commanded Inman.
Bay doors on the Titan groaned as the familiar sound of the rail launching system shot the shuttles out of the bay at Mach seven. Only with the onboard inertia dampers made possible by the shuttle fighters shell generators could a ship go from zero to Mach seven in such a short amount of time. The sensation was a true rush for the pilots of the shuttle fighters.
Inman’s strategy to draw away fire worked as the shuttle fighters dodged in and out of the enemy fleet, too fast and too agile for the enemy to get firing solutions for their targeting systems, what weapons did get through were deflected by the shuttles shell.
With the evacuation complete and the shuttles recalled, the fleet along with their new guests jumped light years from the fight.
Where thou art, that is home. ~ Emily Dickinson
Chapter Eleven – Home
W ill Inman and John Cerro enter the dimly lit Brig to question the recently captured commander and his crew. Their actions made no sense to Will, and he was determined to identify what drove him to attack the Woles people apparently without cause.
As Inman and Cerro entered the interrogation suite, the captured alien stood in respect for the obvious rank of Inman and Cerro. The appearance of the alien aggressors startled Will. Cerro had warned him in their pre-interrogation brief the aggressive race was very similar in appearance to the Woles but he had not expected the same appearance if it were not for the clothing they would be indistinguishable.
When Will began to speak with his captors he recognized the native tongue of the captured commander, it may have been a different dialect, but even with the universal translator converting the words Will knew these people we descended from the same race as the Woles.
“Cerro, have Commander Loken escorted here please” demanded Inman.
“My crew tells me you are Bolick, Supreme Commander of the Temchi” Inman continued.
“You are correct.”
“You may have noticed I was a bit startled when I walked into this room and saw you for the first time. Your appearance and even the language you speak is almost identical to the people you were attacking.”
“I do not see how this is possible, our home planet is light years from theirs, and they are a primitive slave species incapable of advanced thought. Their primitive ships are not even capable of FTL travel” replied Commander Bolick.
A startled Commander Loken entered the room and muttered a few unintelligible words as he approached the seated Bolick.
“I think you two have some things to discuss,” Inman said as he got up to leave the room. “Cerro, let’s keep a couple of guards here with them to make sure the arrogant, pompous ass does not attack anyone.”
Several hours passed as the Temchi and the Woles talked. The discoveries they made in their discussions did nothing to ease the tension, on the contrary Loken was uncharacteristically aggressive toward the arrogant Bolick and guards had to pull Bolick off of Loken twice in two hours.
Commanders Loken and Bolick immediately requested the presence of Commander Inman after their meeting came to a stalemate and Loken requested an escort back to his ship.
Will and John Cerro accompanied the Woles commander to his ship and sat down with him in his private quarters to hear an incredible story, like something out of a Shakespeare tragedy.
As it turns out both the Woles and Temchi races had stories in their ancient archives of descending from ancestors who the Woles described as the great philosophers of antiquity and the Temchi described as War God’s. Their religious books both described a separation of two great people, one an aggressor and one an ideologue. The belief system both civilizations descended from centered around one common theme.
In the distant past (two thousand years was as close as could be determined) both races lived on the same planet and were dominated by two gods. One was the god of pride and the other the god of self-realization. There was a great love, and the two incompatible families were split up by the high priest’s and sent to different planets.
As the realization of their simple minded traditions struck home the two commanders struck out at each other in anger, something expected of the Temchi commander but unexpected of the Woles commander.
Now the issue was what to do with them. The Temchi would never leave the Woles people in peace, so taking them back was not an option. Sending the Temchi back was an option, and after a short discussion with Cerro and the rest of the Executive Team, it was decided to Jump back to the Woles planet, offload the Temchi Commander and his men, return and resume the journey home.
Before they made the short hop to the Temchi planet, Will wanted to test the time travel device for t
he first time on a real mission. He had the JRay system send a recording probe through the time dilator to the point in time Cerro’s delivery mission would arrive and transport the Temchi commander and his crew to the surface of their planet.
Will was cautious about the use of the device, but even more cautious of what it might reveal, or what the use of the information might cause. However, a review of the data retrieved from the probe revealed an uneventful arrival and departure of the shuttle, all within a few minutes of footage retrieved from the probe. Will had the data erased from the probes storage system.
“Newman set a course and take us home” commanded Inman.
Within a few seconds, the battle group was on their way to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet which now numbered in the hundreds of ships.
The arrival of the Titan battlegroup was a time for celebration; it had been a long wait for families not used to being separated from loved ones.
The language barrier quickly disappeared as the Woles people picked up English and acclimated to life with humans. Shortly after meeting up with the rest of the fleet medical teams discovered the Woles people were biologically compatible with the human race, they could marry and reproduce; even the gestation period of the Woles women was within two weeks of the same period.
Cerro had requested the tests, and everyone knew why. Cerro had grown very close to a beautiful single Woles woman named Cerise. After the tests had come back positive Cerro decided to propose; he had just one more major barrier to overcome, Will Inman.
Daily trips to and from the penal colony planet gave the Woles leaders the sense they could live there, and after much deliberation, Commander Loken requested a meeting with Commander Inman and his executive team.
“Commander Inman” Loken began, “we have decided on this planet as our home planet, it is compatible with our needs and our people enjoy the weather and the beautiful flora of the planet.”
“Perfect” replied Inman, “you can work with President Stockman’s logistics group to get you and your people on the planet. I must warn you, Commander, we have established a penal colony on the continent opposite of where your people want to settle. There are over one hundred murderers and despots of the worst kind over there. They are not armed, but they do have what they need to survive.”
Battle Group Titan: Beyond Warp ((Battle Group Titan Series Vol 1)) Page 13
