Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales

by Jay Allan

  All the dead would be going back also and memorial services would be held later. Looking around at the destruction around them, Wade could see the devastation they had caused. This can’t go on much longer, he thought. If it does, we will lose what makes us Human; we can’t allow the Kleese to turn us into soulless killing machines.

  After making sure all of his marines were aboard the drop ships, Wade climbed the ramp and took his seat. There was very little talking as the ship took off and headed back up into orbit where the assault ship was waiting. This had been the most difficult battle yet, and a lot of good marines had lost their lives.

  Later, Wade made it to his quarters on the assault ship and collapsed upon his bunk. In his dreams, he saw the Wren falling before his weapons. He and his marines killed and killed, but nothing could stop the advancing Wren.

  -o0o-

  Marken stood in the Command Center as his ship used its Space Fold drive to warp space in front of the ship. It would take them six days to travel back to the station.

  “A lot of the Human warriors were killed upon the planet,” Skagern commented from his side.

  “Many more than expected,” sighed Marken, shaking his head in regret. “We can’t afford for the Humans to take casualties like this if we want to set our plan into motion.”

  “Everything is ready,” Skagern replied in a lower voice. “It is a shame that Captain Jenkins was killed; he would have played a key role in our escape.”

  “I will recommend that Lieutenant Nelson be promoted to fill his position,” Marken responded as the assault ship continued to pick up speed. It was already traveling at many times the speed of light. “General Mitchell already suspects something is up, though we haven’t filled him in on any of the details.”

  “How soon before we tell the Humans what we’re planning?”

  “Soon,” answered Marken as he folded his arms across his chest. “When we get back I will meet with the others, and we will set a date for our revolt. Once that has been done, I will begin speaking to the key Humans. This will only succeed if we have their trust and support.”

  “What about their home world; when are you going to tell them that it was destroyed by the Kleese?”

  “When we make our escape,” Marken replied with a heavy sigh of resignation. “We don’t know how they will respond to the knowledge that most of their species was annihilated. We can only hope that enough survived so that someday we can take the fight to the Kleese and free our own home world.”

  Skagern nodded and returned to his duties. They were traveling in a bubble created by the Space Fold drive, which warped space directly in front of the ship, making the distance between two points come closer together. The more space was warped, the faster the ship traveled. No one was certain what the upper limit was. Skagern suspected the Kleese might know since the top speed was completely controlled by the amount of power a ship had available to generate the warp effect.

  Marken watched his second in command go back to his duties. In the battle upon the Wren’s planet, they had lost over seven hundred of the Human soldiers out of the nearly ten thousand they had deployed. That didn’t include the six hundred that had died when eight assault ships had been destroyed. Marken allowed his gaze to wander to the large, heavily shielded windows in the front of the Command Center.

  There were thousands of stars out there, and if you watched closely you could almost see them moving as a result of the warp effect. The Kleese controlled most of those stars, and what Marken and the other Kiveans were planning would shake the Empire to its core if they succeeded. Leaning back, Marken thought deeply about the plans that had been made. It would be risky, but they would turn the Humans loose on the Empire once they were told what had been done to Earth. Marken let out a deep breath. It was difficult knowing that the future of his race now depended upon the Humans.

  CHAPTER 14

  Marken and his group were sitting in a small conference room on the space station meeting with General Mitchell, Colonel Bailey, and recently promoted Major Wade Nelson. Under Marken’s urging, Wade had been promoted to the rank of major due to the fact that his units controlled all of the Type Three battle suits. Those battle suits would play an important role in the coming insurrection.

  “I don’t understand why we’re having this meeting,” General Mitchell began with a frown. “We have no new deployments planned for the next several weeks, and after the disaster with the Wren, our people need some downtime. Several of the units deployed to the planet suffered major casualties.”

  “Casualties we were assured wouldn’t happen,” Colonel Bailey reminded Marken pointedly.

  “This doesn’t concern any planned Kleese deployments,” Marken replied carefully as he eyed the three Humans.

  General Mitchell was an older man and very good at organizing the troops under his command. Colonel Bailey was younger and received a high level of respect from those under him, while Major Nelson was a doer. Give him an order and he would accomplish it using whatever means were necessary. They were just the type of people Marken needed to carry out his plans.

  “We are also distressed by the losses,” Marken assured them. “Need I remind you that eight assault ships were also lost, and several of those crews were Kivean?”

  “Then why are we here?” asked Wade. His people were still reeling from Captain Jenkins’ loss as well as the others who had died.

  Marken was silent as he studied the three Humans, wondering nervously how they would react to what he was about to say. If any one of the three revealed the subject of this conversation after they left here, it would mean the end of the rebellion and the execution of all the Humans and Kiveans on the station.

  “The Kleese have long dominated our race and many others,” Marken began. “We want to put an end to that.”

  General Mitchell leaned back and placed his right hand upon the conference table. “So? What are you going to do about it?” he asked challengingly, his eyes focusing on Marken. “It seems as if the Kleese hold all of the cards.”

  Marken hesitated only for a moment. “We plan to escape!”

  “How?” asked Wade, sitting up straighter. “The Kleese will blow your ships out of space if you attempt to leave the station without their permission.”

  “Not if they’re dead,” replied Marken, finally daring to say the words aloud.

  “Dead?” Colonel Bailey echoed, his eyes widening in astonishment. “How?”

  “You’re going to kill them for us,” replied Kalarn, evenly.

  “Impossible,” spoke General Mitchell, shaking his head in denial. He pointed to the collars that all three were wearing. “If we make a move against the Kleese they will activate these collars, killing all of us.”

  “Not necessarily,” responded Marken, gesturing toward Taalon. “Deactivate their collars.”

  Taalon stood up and walked over to a locked cabinet. After entering a combination, he opened the door and removed a small device. He pointed it in the general direction of the three Humans and three red lights appeared on its scanner. After entering a short command, all three lights changed to green. “They’re deactivated,” he reported, looking over at Marken.

  “Remove your collars,” suggested Marken, calmly. It had been difficult to discover how to deactivate the Kleese collars, but after several years of research Kivean scientists and engineers had finally discovered the key to neutralizing them.

  Wade reached up and found to his surprise that the collar came away easily from his neck. He sat staring in bewilderment at the silver and bluish collar which he now held in his hand. “How?” he uttered in a shocked voice. It felt strange for the ever-present collar not to be around his neck.

  “We have the codes to all of the collars on the station,” Marken answered as his eyes swept across the three Human officers. “Two days from today there will not be any of the Kleese large ships docked to the station. We have also arranged for a large number of transport ships to arrive during that ti
me under the guise of delivering trade goods. You will take the Type Three battle suits and use them to kill all of the Kleese. We will be leaving in an evacuation fleet and taking as many assault vessels with us as possible, as well as all of your people that are currently awake.”

  “How many of our people?” General Mitchell demanded, his eyes narrowing. He knew from speaking to Marken that many were still in stasis.

  “There are nearly twelve thousand of you currently awake,” Marken informed him.

  “That leaves nearly fifty thousand still in stasis,” General Mitchell spoke grimly. “What about them?”

  “It will take too long to wake them, and the stasis chambers are too cumbersome to move,” Larnell responded. “Once the revolt begins, we will cut off all communications with the rest of the Empire. We will only have a few hours to pull this off before one of the Kleese disk ships returns to investigate the sudden silence from the station.”

  “Where are we going?” Colonel Bailey asked suspiciously. The Kleese were nearly everywhere. Where could they go that the Kleese wouldn’t eventually be able to track them down?

  Marken was silent for a long moment. “To Earth,” he finally said. “We will be wiping all references to Earth from the station’s computer systems as well as upon the ships that came to your system originally.”

  “That will give us time to prepare a defense against the Kleese,” Kalarn explained. “We have developed a weapon in secret that the Kleese have no knowledge of. If we can install it upon enough ships, we might be able to deter them from attacking us. The Kleese do not like to risk physical harm to themselves; they prefer others to do most of their fighting.”

  General Mitchell nodded. He didn’t like the idea of leaving so many people behind in stasis, but he also didn’t see much choice. This was an opportunity for them to escape and return to Earth and he didn’t see how they could turn it down; they might not get another. “If we agree to this, will you help to defend our solar system from the Kleese?”

  “We will do everything we can to protect your people,” Marken promised. “All of the technology we have developed and discovered from the Kleese will be turned over to your scientists. We will help you build ships that are capable of leaving your system and carrying the war to the Kleese Empire.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” cautioned General Mitchell, raising his hand. “That will be up to the Earth’s governments, not us.”

  “Very well,” Marken replied, not wanting to tell the general that the Earth’s governments no longer existed. Then, leaning forward, he continued. “Now let’s plan just how our revolt and escape is to be carried out. We will only have one attempt at this; if we fail, there will be no others!”

  For three long hours, the conspirators talked. Plans were made and then discarded until finally all were in agreement on what needed to be done. When they were finished talking, the Humans put their collars back on but with one major difference; they were not activated.

  Wade was to return to the dome his marines were in and begin briefing some of his key officers the next day. Once the revolt started, they would have to move swiftly as the Humans were not the only humanoids on the station the Kleese used in their battles. There were several other humanoid races equipped with Type Two battle suits that could pose a problem. The rest of the Humans would be briefed just prior to the revolt.

  -o0o-

  Wade was meeting with Lieutenants Williams and Jeffries as well as Sergeants Stern and Perry. He had briefly described to them the coming rebellion.

  “We’re going home,” sighed Beth, as she leaned back and closed her eyes in disbelief. After nearly a year, they were finally going to take the first step on their voyage back.

  “It won’t be easy,” Wade cautioned them. They were meeting in his quarters, and he stepped over and gazed out the window at the parade grounds in front of the barracks. “We have to eliminate the Kleese, as well as any other opposition.”

  “How many Kleese are there on the station?” Sergeant Stern asked. They very seldom put in an appearance, and during the entire time they had been on the station she had only seen one half a dozen times.

  Wade turned back around and looked at the sergeant. “According to Marken there are normally around two hundred Kleese on the station at any given time. Fortunately, all of their big ships will be gone, and all we will have to deal with is the Kleese and the station crew.”

  “Just how many people are on this station?” Lieutenant Jeffries asked. He knew from its size there had to be tens of thousands.

  “Marken said there are close to six thousand Kiveans plus other races,” replied Wade, taking a deep breath. “The entire station is one hundred and twenty kilometers across and twenty four kilometers thick. Fortunately, many of the larger domes are empty and just used whenever the need arises. The latest census on the station places the crew at nearly one hundred and fifteen thousand, with forty thousand active conscripts being used for military purposes. There are also another two hundred thousand crew family members on board the station, most of them living in the domes.”

  “How many of those will we have to fight?” Lieutenant Jeffries asked his eyes wide. “Forty thousand conscripts sounds like a lot. Some of them will have the same battle suits we do. How can we hope to defeat that many?”

  “Not quite like ours,” Wade reminded them. “From what Marken has told me, we are the only ones with Type Three suits. Not only that, most of the crew will not become involved in the fight. The only ones we will need to worry about are the Kleese and perhaps a few conscripts they might send against us when they realize what’s going down.”

  “What’s the plan?” Beth asked, ready to get off the station. She had a marriage back on Earth to finish planning. For the first time in quite a while, she felt hope for the future.

  “Marken’s people will sabotage the station’s main computer system, locking down the majority of the dome habitats as well as the security forces the Kleese maintain. This will also isolate most of the conscripts that have access to battle suits. Our job will be to take the station’s Command Center, as well as the Flight Command Center, and kill all the Kleese inside. Other troops will take and hold specific flight bays until we can get our people as well as the Kivean’s aboard ships. We’re going to take as many assault ships as we can when we leave. We might need them for protection later on.”

  “When do we make our move?” Jamie asked, her deep blue eyes focusing on the major. She was also ready to leave the station. She had witnessed too much death recently, particularly on their recent deployment to the Wren’s planet. She didn’t like what she was becoming.

  “In twenty-four hours,” replied Wade, drawing a deep breath. “Marken and several of his people will escort us to the Command Center. There will be several guards at the main hatch, which we will have to eliminate. Once that’s done, we go inside and kill any Kleese in sight.”

  “Isn’t there some type of emergency Command Center?” asked Lieutenant Jeffries, feeling that in a station this large there should be.

  “Yes,” replied Wade, looking over at the lieutenant. “As a matter of fact there are two, but Marken’s people have set up a computer virus that will shut down both emergency Command Centers for at least four hours. There are no Kleese stationed in either one as they won’t be expecting an attack. Marken says the emergency Command Centers were only put in as an afterthought and have never been used.”

  Beth thought back to the scene months ago when the Kleese had ruthlessly activated the collars on several marines. She would feel no pity in their deaths. Looking over at Sergeant Sterns, Beth suspected that Jamie was feeling the same way.

  -o0o—

  Later that evening Marken stood with Harnett inside their domed habitat, looking over the small city they had lived in for nearly all of their lives. Already the word was being spread and their people were packing a few personal belongings. Kivean officers in charge of assault ships had discretely made sure
that all of their commands were fully supplied and ready for immediate launch. It had been done over several days so as not to arouse any suspicion from the Kleese. The Kleese were so confident that their technology was superior that none of the lesser races under their control were considered a danger.

  The Kleese actually paid very little attention to the day-to-day operations of the station or the flight bays. The races they had brought on board the station to serve them handled all of that. They were more interested in monitoring communications within the Empire and ensuring that unrest on the many worlds they controlled was held to a minimum. They also spent considerable time sending their large disk ships on exploration missions, seeking out new worlds to add to their Empire. All three of the major Galactic Empires were intent on rapid expansion.

  Marken often wondered what would happen when there were no more worlds for the empires to conquer. Even now, there were occasional skirmishes between conscripts of each side where their empire boundaries overlapped. It was hard to imagine what an actual war between any of the major empires would be like, particularly due to the size of their largest ships and the firepower they possessed. The current war over the acquisition of new planets would be considered only a small skirmish if any of the major powers actually went to war.

  There were normally ten of the huge Kleese disk ships assigned to the station and currently all but one were out searching the galaxy for new planets. The other one was due to leave early in the morning. Four hours after it left, Marken intended to launch his revolt. With the ships gone, the assault ships could safely escape without fear of being destroyed. Also, all the weapons on the station would be disabled by a computer virus Taalon would be inserting into the system. It would be hours before any surviving Kleese or the station crew could reactivate them.

  “It’s hard to believe we’re leaving,” Harnett spoke in a soft voice as she gazed over what had been their home for so long. In many ways, she would miss it.

  “We’ve had a good life here,” spoke Marken, taking Harnett’s hand. “But the Kleese control everything, even when we’re allowed to have children. That must come to an end.”