Cornelius stood up and walked over to the place where the house had stood. All that was left were the foundations, and plasticrete slab the actual building had sat on. That, and the heavy door that led to the cellar, the place Katlyn had been sheltering in when he deserted the militia to save her. There was no growth here, the plasticrete was too hard to allow the roots to gain purchase. The door was intact, as was the keypad set beside it. So, they didn’t enter here after all, he thought, looking at the door, then punching in the code. He started second guessing himself, wondering what would have happened to him and his wife if they had just stayed put.
The door rose, and the smell of death came wafting out. No. We left this door propped open, so the cats could get at the food in the cellar. And something closed it.
The lights came on, revealing the square room below, packed with all kinds of goods, rations, tools, and in the center, the skeleton of a cat. So someone did come here. Most likely the Cacas. And we would both be laying there on that floor, dead. Just like the kitty cat.
The Lieutenant turned at the soft meow that sounded to his side. He looked over and down to see a skinny cat, a calico, looking up at him expectantly. He recognized the coat pattern. It was one of the kittens they had bought to control the vermin. It had the internal nanites needed to eat the native life, but still must have had a hard time surviving in a place where most of the other animals would have seen it as prey, despite their not being able to sustain themselves on its Terran flesh.
The cat opened its mouth again in a quiet meow. Cornelius squatted down with a smile on his face. “Hello there,” he said in a soft voice, putting out a hand as the cat started to shift back from him. She sniffed his hand, then walked in under it, rubbing its back against his palm. “I don’t know what we called you,” he said in the same soft voice. “Katlyn was into naming you guys. But one thing I can tell you, little lady. You’re safe now.” The only link I have to this place.
Cornelius picked up the cat and held it close, feeling the deep purr flow from the little body into his. He stroked the fur with his hand and looked up at the darkening sky. The sun was low on the horizon, and the first stars were coming out. “I miss you honey,” he said in the same soft voice he had used with the cat, a voice he had almost forgotten he possessed. Tears started to roll down his cheeks as he saw the face of his deceased first wife in his mind. I miss you so much. But I’ve got another life. A new family, and our son is a part of it. He looked out at the surrounding fields with a sad smile. And you thought I would become a Marquis, and country squire. Something I laughed at. And now I’m a knight, and a baron, though I haven’t had my barony assigned to me yet.
He took a breath of the sweet air, as he had often done when this was his home. Maybe this place will be my barony. Why not? He shook his head. It would be years before the Empire had the resources to rebuild here. If they ever did. If they survived.
Cornelius looked up at the sky, at the numerous stars of the Perseus arm that were now sparkling in the night. But first, we have to defeat the damned Cacas. Oh, we pushed them out of the Empire. But they’ll be back. It’s either them or us, and I’ll be goddamned if it’s them. I’ve got a lot of killing to do before this is over, Katlyn. And every one of them I send to hell will have your name stamped on its soul. That I swear.
Cornelius held the cat tight as he walked away from the house, back toward the men who were waiting for him. This planet was free of Cacas. They were either all dead, or prisoners on the ships above. But there were many, many more where they came from. And the man known as The Hunter smiled at that thought.
* * *
CAPITULUM, JEWEL. MARCH 16TH, 1002.
“Your Majesty,” said the servant, running into the small dining room where Sean was having breakfast with his Empress. Jennifer was in her fourth month, six months away from delivery of his heir. The fleet was in the process of rebuilding, the industrial capacity had expanded by leaps and bounds, and there had been no sign of the Cacas since the counter strike he had led. What they still had in human space had fled, maybe to hiding places outside of the Empire, maybe back to their own realm.
“What is it?” said Sean, looking down at his plate of eggs and bacon, his favorite. My time is never really my own, he thought.
“Admiral McCullom is on the priority circuit for you.”
“I’ll take it here,” he said, looking over at Jennifer, who nodded back. As Empress, she had the clearance for all information that reached up to this level.
The holo came alive over the table, showing the head and shoulders of Grand High Admiral Sondra McCullom, the Chief of Naval Operations. Her face looked drawn, and Sean wondered what had happened.
“The Cacas,” whispered Jennifer, staring at the holo.
“Your Majesty,” said the woman in a quivering voice. “The wormholes we had in transit to Bolthole have arrived.”
“That’s great news, Admiral,” Sean said with a smile. When Sondra didn’t smile back, he again wondered what was wrong. “And?”
“They’re back, your Majesty. After all this time. And they have probed the defenses of Bolthole.”
“The Cacas?” asked Sean in confusion, not sure how their enemy had found Bolthole, much less gotten ships to that space.
“No, your Majesty,” said the woman, her shoulders shaking. “The Machines, your Majesty. Those murderous robots are back.”
* * *
CA’CADASAN IMPERIAL CAPITAL. FEBRUARY 20TH, 1003.
The Supreme Emperor of the Ca’cadasan Empire, Jresstratta IV, looked down his long snout at the large male who knelt before him.
“I want the humans crushed Great Admiral Ljarritta’ran,” roared the Supreme Leader of the largest empire in known space. “I want their kingdoms destroyed, and the humans exterminated.”
“Your wish is my mission,” said he Great Admiral, his eyes averted to the floor. “I swear on my life, and the lives of my sons, and all their prodigy to ten generations.” That was the most sacred oath a Cacada warrior could swear, and failure would mean the destruction of his line, completely and forever.
Great Admiral Miierrowanasa M’tinisasitow had failed, much to the shock of the entire Empire. In the entire history of the empire, a conquest fleet had never failed to take the stars it was tasked to bring into the empire. The only time it had even partially failed was the case of the fleet tasked with destroying the humans in their home system. They had destroyed the planet, and most of the humans, but some had escaped.
Great Admiral Miierrowanasa M’tinisasitow had the total of three conquest fleets assigned to his command at the end, over six thousand ships all told, plus periodic reinforcements. And now a mere thousand vessels, probably many less, those who had not been with his main bodies during the human counter strike, still lurked at the edge of the largest human polity and its smaller neighbor. The rest had been destroyed by the humans. The supposedly weak, infuriating humans.
“I accept your oath, Great Admiral, in the spirit and seriousness in which it was offered,” said the Emperor, grabbing a delicacy from the plate offered by a crab like slave, bearing food and drink on its back.
A thousand nobles in attendance held their breaths as the Emperor spoke those words. Most had known M’tinisasitow, and his children and grandchildren on down. The Great Admiral had never returned. And his descendants had all been put to death in public executions, so that the society of the Empire would remember the deadly seriousness of such oaths.
“And what is the status of your fleet?” asked the Emperor, gesturing for his chosen commander to stand and face him.
“Thank you, your Majesty,” said the Admiral, rising to his feet. “We are still awaiting the arrival of the last of the assigned conquest fleets. Of course, we could leave early, and let them catch up with us in human space.”
The Emperor held up his upper right hand. “No. You will wait until that fleet arrives. I want you to be able to hit the humans with overwhelming force. And, since I am
not sure how our new ships will perform, it would be best that they were tested in smaller actions, while your other ships bear the brunt of the combat.”
The Great Admiral gave a head motion of acceptance, seeing the wisdom of the Emperor’s words. He would have ten conquest fleets, over twenty thousand ships, as well as several large task forces from the home fleet, giving him another five thousand ships. Not including the troop transports, freight and stores haulers, antimatter tankers, repair ships, couriers, all the various vessels needed for modern warfare. And he would have one other advantage that the defeated fleet didn’t. He would be carrying ten wormholes in his force, the first made at the new experimental production facility the human traitor had established. Not many, as compared to the humans, but they would still let him establish communications between his commands, as well as home, and offered the possibility of opening a ship gate in human space.
“The humans will be ready for you, Admiral,” continued the Emperor. “Make no mistake there. They will have been furiously building up their war machine, knowing that we have not given up. You must strike where they don’t expect it, and drive into their industrial heartland.”
And it was almost nine months to get the news of M’tinisasitow’s defeat. Another four months to prepare this fleet, and now another nine months to go from the center of our Empire to the edge of human space. Almost two years, and no telling what they have developed in that time. But we have our own people working on improvements. Some already on our ships, more to come, including those made by the human traitors. The Great Admiral scoffed at that last thought. He couldn’t understand a being that would betray its own species just to save its own miserable life. There were many species of slave in the Empire that had done just that, but no Cacada could understand it, except for the few cowards that cropped up in every generation.
“I wish we could send more,” said the Emperor, standing up from his throne and walking down the steps to put his hand on the Great Admiral’s shoulder, a singular honor among their people. “I would prefer to roll over them so quickly that they had no chance of fighting back. Unfortunately, our war in the Sagittarius arm is consuming too many of our resources.”
Meaning we are losing ships and males at an alarming rate, thought the Great Admiral with a head motion of agreement. He had come from that war, with an Empire of many species, some of which they still hadn’t seen. But they were just as infuriating as the humans had turned out to be. After four years of fighting the Empire was just beginning to make some advances on that front.
“Our hopes go with you, Great Admiral,” said the Emperor, clapping his hand down on the big male’s shoulder. “We need you to destroy them quickly, then bring those ships back to reinforce our other front.”
Neither male thought for a moment that the humans could wait until they won the other war. That was not the way Ca’cadasans thought. The humans were enemy, their location was known, and they needed to be taken down.
The End
Books by Doug Dandridge
Science Fiction
The Deep Dark Well Trilogy
The Deep Dark Well: An Adventure 40,000 years in the making. Pandora Latham was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama. She’s used to landing on her feet, even when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and 46,000 years in the Future. Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the Empire that once ruled the stars. Her decisions will set the path for Galactic recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.
To Well and Back: Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore Galactic Civilization. But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the Galaxy their own. Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.
Deeper and Darker: Pandora Latham is on the warpath. Watcher, her lover, and the only man who can once again unite the Galaxy, is a prisoner of the Totalitarian government of the New Galactic Empire. The Empire thinks they have the upper hand, but they have never faced someone like Pandi, and the peoples of the Galaxy that she has rallied to her cause.
The Exodus Series
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1: The introduction to the Exodus Universe. Two thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home. Now the greatest power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran Empire. Until the enemy appears once again at the gates. And the years have not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2: The saga continues. The Ca’cadasans attack at the moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic. There are other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed humans. And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the position he most dreads.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: Sean is rescued, but he is not about to go back to the safety of the capital without striking back at the Ca’cadasans who have invaded his Empire. But will his decision put the lives of thousands at risk, as well as risking the safety of his own Empire, by depriving it of its leader.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: Sean is crowned Emperor, and attempts to organize the Empire for war against the Ca’cadasans. But he finds that planning battles and winning battles are two different things. Defeat follows defeat. Can anyone snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Or will the new Emperor fail before his reign even really begins.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger: Cornelius Walbroski enters the rigors of Ranger training, becoming one of the augmented warriors of the Empire. But his first assignment, Azure, is one of the most deadly planets in the Galaxy, even prior to the coming of the Cacas. Can Cornelius survive his first mission? Or will promising career end before it really begins.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 6: The Day of Battle: Sean and the Empire need a victory before human morale goes completely into the black hole. He develops a plan to bring the Ca’cadasans into battle in space of his choosing. But the Cacas are not an easy opponent, and they have plans of their own, for the Donut.
Other Scifi
Diamonds in the Sand: When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere to find out what really happened. The scientist was working on Nanotechnology, a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob. There are too many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love. The Army had made Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been unleashed by the new technology?
The Scorpion: The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. Kestral McMann had been in on the kill. Now The Scorpion is back as a mind upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United States. McMann is the only man who can stop him. But can McMann survive the threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age.
The Shadows of the Multiverse: Something has been periodically wiping intelligence from our Universe through the ages. It’s back, and it’s up to three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from Monsters from another Dimension. Can they learn to use the powers of their unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for billions of years?
Afterlife: What if you didn’t believe in the afterlife of the World’s Religions? And what if science offered you the alternative, survival within the Virtual World of a computer, where your mental abilities are magnified and you can do anything you want? And what if the World decided that your way was wrong, and declared war on you, meaning to destroy your reality? What would you do? Afterlif
e, a tale of survival at all costs.
We Are Death, Come For You: When aliens strike the Tau Ceti colony, humankind knows that something bad is on the way. They prepare as best they can, but will it be enough against superior technology? The aliens are death worshippers, and only the extinction of the human race will satisfy their evil intent. There are wonders of tech on the horizon, but can they be deployed in time? Or will humankind have to depend on the smallest of their techs to save them?
Fantasy
The Refuge Series
Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1: A nuclear war in Central Europe opens the gates between dimensions, sending millions of Earth Humans into a land of myth, archetypes and fantasy. The Evil Emperor of the Ellala Elves sees the humans as energy to fuel his transformation to immortality. But the humans have brought their own weapons with them, as well as a race of Demigods who will battle the fantastic armies of Refuge. The war is on, and only one side will ultimately survive.
Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2: The Ellala have a plan to destroy the human military and capture the civilians. And the humans find that their weapons will soon cease to function. So it’s use it or lose it for the Earth Humans, and they use it with a vengeance. Tanks against Mages, Attack Helicopters against Dragons, and Nuclear Weapons against Death Gods. And the other peoples of the planet come forth as allies to the humans that they see as the fulfillment an Ancient Prophecy. But will it be enough?
Refuge: Book 3: The Legions: The human invaders are now without their technologies, at least those using explosives and internal combustion engines. But they still have knowledge of many other techs, especially the arts of warfare as practiced by the greatest infantry of the ancient world. Will it be enough to stand up to the half lich Emperor and his magical forces.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike Page 40
