The Alliance in Peril

by Peter Lewis Atkinson

  We returned to our ship and awaited his call. Now, when you wait for something with nothing to distract you, time drags. I was on tenterhooks just waiting, I would need to leave Earth today to ensure I would arrive back at Alkarr, ahead on the estimated time the Silka was expected to arrive there.

  Four hours later I received a call from the Prime Minister. He said, “I have some good news for you. A unanimous decision was made; each of the league's members agreed to assist. Earth will be sending no less than fifteen battlecruisers. It’s the least we can do to show our solidarity with the alliance.”

  Relieved, I said, “Thank you. When do you expect to be ready to leave Earth?”

  The Prime Minister replied, “Within twenty-four hours. Be assured we know how to get there. We have been making ever longer jaunts to other solar systems and we are now confident that we can, if needed, travel anywhere within alliance space.”

  I once again thanked him. I now left Earth with haste. I needed to return to Alkarr. I may not be of much use defending the planet, but I still wanted to be there just the same, somewhere that I could observe whatever happened.

  On arrival, we could count all six of those battlecruisers. They were orbiting the planet and awaiting the arrival of the Silka invasion force. The smaller craft were also there, circling them, but at some distance. I was observed as I passed. No attempt was made to challenge my cargo freighter, which meant the ship was recognised as an alliance built ship.

  I put the ship in a low orbit. Alenna said, “Why aren’t you going to the port?”

  “I don’t want to.” I replied, “If we do I will not see what happens. In low orbit, we are best placed to be observers of the battle.”

  Alenna knew me too well. She said, “Jake stay out of the conflict. Just watching is one thing but joining in is another. Remember we have all our family on board.”

  I said, “Fine, but if they come for us, I will use the plasma cannon in our defence.”

  The longer it took for the Silka to arrive the better chance we had. Earth’s battlecruisers were due to arrive hopefully within twenty-four hours, the alliance might have to engage the enemy before then. Alkarr’s survival was at stake and after battling with my own thoughts, I decided that all Alkarrens should have a chance to see the battle as well. The final decision would be down to the controllers of the television channel. They might also need to seek permission from the government. I would send them a live signal and it would then be down to them to show it or not. I assumed the top officials must know that their defences were insufficient. So I sent details to the department that dealt with defence that help was on its way. We could monitor the news from our position in space. Nothing was said at first.

  I was then contacted by an official, who said in an excited way, “Is this true, help from Earth is on its way? We had been informed not to expect any further help at all. Earth was never even considered, I was also informed that Earth only had limited defences and they had their own battle with the Silka to deal with.”

  I replied, “Earth has come a long way in the last three years. They have taken on the Silka and prevailed, destroying all the Silka battlecruisers without any damage being inflicted upon their own fleet. How they accomplished this, I did not ask. I did, however, ask if they could assist Alkarr in its hour of need and they were only too willing to do so. A fleet of no less than fifteen battlecruisers are on their way here, I just hope they arrive in time.”

  The official was dumbstruck but managed to say, “Fifteen! You said fifteen, how many battlecruisers does Earth possess?”

  I replied, “More than the alliance. As I said, the Earth has come a long way in the last three years.”

  The official then said, “I do hope they arrive soon, but in the meantime, I will inform the captains of our fleet to expect their arrival. Thank you, Captain Jake.”

  It was not that long before the news mentioned what I had said, and not only that, they had suspended all programmes. They were showing my live link in expectation of the Silka arrival. Ten hours passed and they hadn’t yet arrived. I needed some shut eye as I had been awake for almost twenty hours. Lumi and Perri were left on the bridge with the request that they should awaken me the moment something happened. On another note, Yarkeli was relieved to know that the ship her daughter was now on, was not any of the ships guarding Alkarr.

  I was rudely awakened by Perri, almost screaming at me to come to the bridge immediately. I only had about four hours rest. As I arrived the first thing to strike me were flashes of light reflecting onto the bridge ceiling. As I looked through the bridge windows I could see a single Silka ship. It was larger than the alliance battlecruisers. Though similar in size to the ones I encountered before at Earth, it was of a much different design. Our ships had all targeted it and were engaged in a battle. It was not long before another three Silka ships arrived, one after another. I think the alliance strategy was to try and destroy a ship as soon as it arrived. Six ships against one were overwhelming odds and the alliance had fast put the first ship out of commission. But now the odds were not so great. Unfortunately, more Silka craft began to arrive and after an hour they had outnumbered our fleet three to one. It could only get worse, and it did, as more of their ships arrived. The Alliance ships were beginning to lose ground fast. Several smaller craft had already been destroyed and it was not that long before one of the battlecruisers fell to the same fate. It now looked dire. We needed Earth’s ships now, but they had not yet arrived. The remaining alliance ships put up a glorious fight, but they could not hold back the tide of Silka ships arriving. Although the alliance had destroyed a number of these Silka ships the alliance was succumbing to the same fate. One after the other our battlecruisers were lost. We were down to two battlecruisers, one of which was severely damaged. I had almost lost hope when one of the large ships in the Silka fleet just blew up without warning in a most blinding flash. The flash was so intense that the windows of the bridge turned black. This black was down to an automatic system that protects the occupants, like an auto welder’s helmet. Just as the windows lightened there were several more intense flashes of light as more of the Silka ships just blew up. What’s happening? I thought, what’s blowing up their ships? One after another the Silka ships were just blowing up. Nothing could be seen, what was causing this? This continued until the last Silka ship had been destroyed.

  I looked towards Alenna and said, “They are all gone! Just like that.” Before I could say anything more the reason became clear as day.

  As we gazed upon the devastation, battlecruisers just appeared before us. Earth had arrived. Their strategy had paid off. With their illusions field activated they had not only arrived but sneaked up behind the Silka craft and launched their new weapons upon the Silka where they least expected it. Earth had targeted the only area not shielded, the engines. There were cheers all round by my family and I guess from all the inhabitants of Alkarr as well. So what was this new weapon Earth now possessed? Earth had made its own type of torpedo, one with a nuclear warhead. Not only that, they had also copied something from that old shuttle they had acquired from me. These torpedoes now had their very own illusion field. The Silka were totally unaware of the presence of Earth battlecruisers and the torpedoes that had been launched upon them. This is how they had defended Earth without any loss of their own ships, and now they had done exactly the same to defend Alkarr. I had the pleasure of relaying the thanks and eternal gratitude from the entire planet of Alkarr to the captains and their crews of the Earth’s ships. Without Earth’s support, Alkarr would have been lost. The thought of what could have been sent shivers down my spine. The Earth ships with their mission completed soon went on their way. We returned to Alkarr where the celebrations and parties seem to go on for weeks. After that it was back to business, as usual, doing what I enjoy most, taking goods to other
worlds.

  Epilogue

  A quick update on what has happened since the Silka war. Earth has been made a full member of the alliance. Due to the devastation of Silka ships, there was a large problem with debris orbiting both Alkarr and Earth. This situation could not last and specialist ships with magnetic as well as conventional nets wiped the orbit to collect the smaller parts before being dumped. In Alkarr’s case, this was on its innermost planet out of harm’s way due to being mostly radioactive. It took many years to do this. Earth drove the Silka from alliance space, before pursuing the Silka back to their homeworld. Although in some quarters the thought was that they should be entirely eradicated, this idea was not carried through, which was probably for the best. You can’t go wiping a whole race out, even as bad as the Silka. Earth would be accused of genocide. No, they confined the Silka to their own planet, destroying any spacecraft that dared to leave. The evacuees returned to their settlements. I did, by the way, find out where that waterfall and rock pool was on Mazar, and in doing so spent many a pleasant hour there. Pooky made captain in just five years and now has her own command. For the next ten years, all went fine. Those ancient hieroglyphs on that monument were decoded by a clever professor on Earth and expeditions were despatched to make contacts with these worlds. Two were much like Alkarr and Tazanter. The third planet was another story. It was without doubt Earth’s nemesis, an evil twin. Same size yellow dwarf sun, same size third planet as Earth. It would have been great, but for a single reason. The planet was inhabited by a human-like race, yes, as many males as females. But what made it worse was that it had one world dominating government that was draconian in nature, with a hell-bent desire towards domination of the galaxy. Unfortunately, this is where yet another war started, lasting over a decade. But that is another story told by someone else, as I did not get involved in any way. Anyway, we are off to Earth in the next few days. It will be Christmas again and now we always spend Christmas on Earth.

  The End of the Chronicles of Jake

  Footnote by Misty

  “I thought I should let you know a little about my father’s later life. He did have many more adventures. The alliance continued to explore space travelling further out into our galaxy and as such discovered more unique races, five of which were friendly and invited to join the alliance. My father did get to visit some of these new worlds. My older sisters were given the old cargo ship to run their own business. As for my father, it came to the time when he decided to take things more easily. At the age of seventy-five, he turned over the captainship of our cargo freighter to me. I never married. The main reason for this is I could not find any Alkarren that I would consider hard working and caring enough. I, along with several sisters and my twin brothers and their wives ran the business for several years. My father would be choosy and come on trips that he wanted, mainly to Mazar, Molk and of course Earth. By the time he reached ninety he had had enough and spent his time on Alkarr with his wives. My father was fortunate that his health held up, that was until he reached ninety-seven when out of the blue and without any warning his younger sister, my dear aunty Rachael passed away. This hit him hard and he never recovered. After this, his health faded and a month before his ninety-ninth birthday passed away. I miss my father terribly, he was a good dad. The thing was he always had time for his children. My father was regarded as the saviour of Alkarr and after his death it was decided that he should be honoured. A statue of him stands in a square in the capital city. I am so proud of him. Anyway, today I hit a milestone in my life, I am one-hundred years old today. I am lucky. My father left considerable funds for his children’s retirement. I can, and do, go to concerts and places of interest. Well, I am off now to my very special party, so I can’t talk any longer, bye.”

  Thank you, from the Author.

  Yes, I would like to say thank you for finding the time to read the Chronicles of Jake Trilogy. Please, if you enjoyed the trilogy feel free to leave a few words of encouragement to others, through a review on Amazon, just a few words. I would much appreciate it. I do expect to write more books in the future, so look out and thank you again, Peter.

  Acknowledgement.

  Cover picture courtesy of Dreamstime. Artist, Luca Oleastri.

  THE ALLIANCE IN PERIL ( The Chronicles of Jake Book--3 )

  Copyright © 2017 by Author. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.

  Author: Peter Lewis Atkinson.

  e-mail: thehouseofalbion@btconnect.com

  United Kingdom.

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  Only officially distributed through Amazon sites. If purchased elsewhere it would certainly be a pirated copy.