by Saxon Andrew
Mike ended his conversation with Alex and looked around the room. He stood up and waited until the room grew silent. “We’re here today to determine what our next steps are going to be in our conflict with the Weg. There is information we need to share with everyone and we also need to analyze where we are in our efforts so far.” He looked at the most senior Gracken Elder and said, “Why don’t you get us started?”
Gremel pulled his microphone closer and kept his seat, “There has been a radical change in the Weg’s behavior after General Adams’ units killed the first Queen. They have made a conscious decision to no longer challenge us above ground. We lost two divisions to a new species of Digging Weg that somehow manages to move underground without generating any noise. This renders most of our seismic probes worthless in trying to determine their positions or where the Queens are located.” Gremel paused and said, “We’ve tried to saturate the surface of the planet where we lost our two divisions with seismic probes but it appears as soon as they arrive on the surface, every Weg underground starts making noise while others remove the probes. All we receive is a black return from the surface showing nothing lower than ten feet.”
Mike said, “Are you saying we have absolutely no way of seeing them underground?”
“Unless we develop a more advanced probe…that is exactly the case. We did make one determination before our probes were completely shut down.” Gremel looked at his notes and said, “It appears that the chamber where the Queen is located is being surrounded by the material used to construct their starships.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed, “How will that make a difference?”
Jek stood up and said, “Elder, may I answer that question?” Gremel nodded. “The material they use to construct their starships is almost impossible to penetrate. It takes hundreds of the main blasters on our warships to destroy it and all of you have seen that the ship survives a crash into a planet’s surface traveling faster than five hundred miles an hour.” Jek paused and looked around the room, “The beams we used to create a tunnel for the missile to the Queen’s Chamber will not penetrate that material and we believe all the area around the new Chambers built for the Queens has been surrounded by that material. Even if we knew where the new chambers were located, it’s doubtful we could get to her using the method employed to kill the first Queen.”
Jek paused and looked around the room and saw the stunned expression of the Officers sitting against the wall. Jek looked down and said, “We did discover when the last assault of Weg Starships attacked the Gracken Capital that the difference maker was the Q ships called in. There were more than two thousand Weg Ships that came into normal space and accelerated toward the planet. It was the Q ships that killed the vast majority of those Queens. The fact that only one made it down to the surface was incredible. That one would have failed as well if the Q ships had arrived moments earlier.”
Mike looked at Hetzel and smiled, “You can thank my Lead Councilor for quick thinking. He sent the Q ships immediately.” Mike looked at Jek, “So we now know that the Q ship’s beams will destroy the Weg Starships?”
Jek nodded, “We do. However, it takes a full beam to kill them. I don’t know if the Weg can develop a tougher hull that can withstand a Q ship’s beam but for the moment, they are vulnerable.”
Jesse said, “How many Q ships are needed to defend a planet against that many Weg ships?”
Jek looked at Jesse and shrugged, “Six Q ships can handle two thousand of them, Mr. President. However, if they launch higher numbers, it will require more ships.”
Alex looked at Jek, “Where did those Weg Ships come from? We didn’t detect any launches from the planets we’ve been watching.”
Jek looked at his scientists and turned back to Alex, “We’re of the opinion that they were launched from a Weg planet in a different part of the universe.” Jek saw several of the attendees start talking among themselves and he said, “No, we don’t know where the planet that launched them is located.”
The room grew silent. Mike looked at Alex and then back at Jek, “So all of the planets the Weg have found are in danger of attack?” Jek shook his head and then nodded.
Gremel said, “Removing the Weg here is only part of what must be done. This cancer has metastasized and spread.”
Jek turned to Gremel, “And landing on a Weg infested planet is a now a death sentence. The current Weg strategy is to dig under our Warriors and collapse the ground under them after forcing their carriers into space with their new missiles.”
Alex leaned forward, “Can the Q ships shoot those missiles down?”
Hetzel stood up, “Yes, but…”
“But what?”
“We don’t have enough Q ships to put around all of the planets we know the Weg have targeted in the past with their ships. I’m going to assume that the next attack will have many more ships than those in the last one. I’m pretty certain that only one ship made it through our defenses.”
Mike looked around the table, “We are currently at our peak production of Q ships but it is not high enough that we can produce the number needed to defend every planet.”
Gremel turned and looked at Mike, “Why not?”
Mike shrugged, “The Q ship is the most advanced piece of technological hardware the Alliance has ever produced. The systems are not such that they cannot be massed produced and honestly, they’re pretty much built by hand.”
“What about installing their beams on our battleships?”
Hetzel began talking and Gremel turned to him, “Your ships do not have the shielding to protect your crews from the powerful radiation the Q beams produce. The reactors that power them also require a shield that would require rebuilding your ships to install it. We’ve looked at the issue closely after you sent us the blueprints of your warships and there’s no way they could survive the blast of a single Q beam much less the hundreds fired every second during a Weg Starship drop.”
Gremel looked at Alex, “Is what I hear being said is here is that we’re going to lose this war?”
Mike looked at Gremel and then turned to Josh, “What about it, General? Are we going to lose?”
Josh looked around the room and saw everyone staring at him. He took a deep breath and slowly shook his head. He looked at the Officers along the wall and saw their apprehension and looked back at Gremel, “Elder, the way I see it, we are going to experience high casualties from this moment forward but we can win this war.”
Gremel’s eyes narrowed, “How?”
“It’s like I said the first time I saw a battle between Rumel’s Dvision and the Weg. The only way we can win is to go after the Queen underground.” Everyone in the room stared at Josh like he was insane. Josh stood up and looked around the room, “I think those of us in the Military that would have to do this understand this at some level and know the price that will have to be paid to do it. As I see it, we have to accomplish three things to kill the Weg Queens. First; we have to locate the Queen and go after her before she can be moved.” Josh paused, “Second; we have to find a way to dig our way down to her fast enough to prevent her escape.” Josh paused again and turned to Jek, “And third, we have to have the right weapons to keep the Weg Diggers off us while we’re doing it.”
Gremel snorted, “You’re not asking much. All three of those things are impossible.”
Josh smiled, “Actually, I can accomplish the first two right now.” Silence slammed down on the room. After a few minutes, Tilly said, “Well, if no one else is going to ask, I will. How will you get down to her, Josh?”
Josh smiled and looked at Mike, “I do love your wife.”
Mike chuckled, “Get in line; you’re not alone.”
Josh looked around the room and said, “All of you have seen the recording of me dropping thirty thousand Weg diggers on the Gracken Capital, right?” Everyone nodded. “When a Queen is killed, all the surviving Weg go docile. They are incapable of making decisions, so they just stand around and wait until they li
ve out their life expectancy. I used a telepathic helmet that was tuned to the dead Weg Queen’s thought pattern and I ordered them to come with me to remove a Queen that was attacking my children.”
Alex said, “Your children?”
“That’s how they see each other and others. They understand, to their way of thinking, that all the Warriors that drop with me are my children. The Weg are genetically wired to defend their Queen but…” Josh smiled, “This is the important part, they are also programmed to attack any other Queen and her eggs that intrude on their territory. They can’t stop themselves. When they went underground on Gracken, they dug directly to that new Queen and killed her along with all the eggs she had laid. I can use those Weg to dig a path to the Weg Queens. Once we’re there, we’ll kill her.”
Gremel stared at Josh, “Do you have any idea how many Weg you’ll have to fight your way through to make it to the Queen?”
Josh nodded, “We won’t have to make it through all of them. The entire planet is covered with them but only those close enough to the Queen to dig to her before we arrive will have to be overcome. That number is huge but if we can manage to kill the Queen, the others will stop attacking us.”
“Then what?”
Josh looked over at Prissy and smiled, “We’ll turn those Weg into tools to attack the next Queen.”
Jek shook his head, “How can you be sure they’ll do what you want?”
Josh smiled, “I can hear them now. They’re billions of light years from here and they’re begging me to come and use them like I did the first group.”
“Why?”
“They’re bored to death. They seek anything to relieve what their life has become.”
Tilly said, “And they can find the Queens.”
Josh smiled, “Yes, they can. They can hear her wherever she’s located and will direct us to her.”
Alex said, “And we’re going to send warriors down into the tunnel they dig?”
Joshua nodded, “We’ll be surrounded by walls and Weg coming at us from all sides, but I believe those walls is what will allow us to win this war.”
Tilly looked at Josh and said, “Joshua’s Walls.”
Every human in the room looked at Tilly as she said, “Let us hope they don’t come tumbling down.”
Josh smiled, “This time, the task is to keep the walls standing.”
“How are you going to do this?”
“I’ll need every large Alliance Transport gutted so we can crowd as many Weg as possible inside them.”
“How many transports will you need?”
Josh looked at Hetzel, “Five thousand.”
Hetzel shook his head, “That’s 70% of our commercial fleets.”
Josh shrugged, “I have a billion Weg ready to go to war with us. If by some miracle we manage to kill the Queen quickly, we’ll need triple that number the next time.” Josh looked at Mike, “It doesn’t take as long to build a transport as a Q ship, does it?”
Mike looked at Hetzel and said, “You’ll have your transports.”
Josh said, “Is there any way to change the bottom of them so that they can slide open and just dump every Weg on board to the ground?”
Mike looked at Hetzel, “Is there?”
“It will make them useless for future commercial shipments.”
“I’d rather see a slowdown in our economy than a drop down of a Weg Queen on any of our planets.”
Uginoth was mumbling and Josh said, “What are you thinking?”
The old scientist flinched and said, “Most of the space in those transports go unused on more than ninety percent of their loads. We have hundreds of thousands of medium transports that are used to transport civilians between our worlds. I suspect they would leap at the opportunity to carry commercial cargos along with their passengers.” He held up his calculator, “If my numbers are right, the economy would actually grow with the new shipping companies that would scramble to take up the slack.”
Hetzel shook his head, “I’ll make the modifications. When do you plan to do this?”
“We need weapons that will be effective underground. I also want to arm the Weg we’re going to drop with sliver handguns.”
Alex shook his head, “You’re really putting a lot of trust in these monsters.”
Josh smiled, “I can hear them. They have to have a way to keep the local Weg off them as they dig our channel to the Queen.”
“We don’t have a billion of them.”
“Then give me what you have and I’ll assign those carrying them to be defenders of those digging.”
Prissy shouted, “How are you going to prevent the slivers from hitting our Weg?”
Josh looked at her and was shocked by the question. He hadn’t even considered it. Prissy saw his expression and looked at Jek, “What about a magnet each of them could carry that the slivers would ignore?”
Jek’s head went back and he nodded, “That could do it? That is just a simple programming issue.”
Josh looked at Prissy and mouthed, “Thank you.”
She smiled and sat down.
Mike looked at Jek, “Do you have anything in the works that our Warriors can use to give them a fighting chance?”
Jek looked at the other scientists present and said, “Let us start working on it while the transports are being modified.”
Alex looked at Gremel, “Are you in agreement with this plan?”
Gremel looked at Josh, “My warriors will not be suited for this, will they?”
Josh blew out a breath, “It would take a much bigger tunnel for them to move through.”
Gremel looked at Jek, “Develop something my Warriors can do during this attack.”
Jek looked at Gremel and blinked. After a moment he nodded, “I’ll see what we can come up with.”
Prissy said, “What about the missiles they’ve developed? Won’t they be able to shoot down the transports as they’re dropping to the planet?”
Josh looked at Jek, “Perhaps the Gracken might be made into a good missile defense force.”
Jek’s face brightened and he smiled, “We’ll see what we can do.”
• • •
Josh took a transport and filled it with the magnets Jek programmed to the slivers. He jumped to the Weg Planet and called the Flyer to the surface. More than a hundred thousand others came out of the dirt with him. The Weg thought, “Have you come to use us again?”
“I intend to do just that shortly; however, I’m here to drop a load of small metal discs and I want every one of you to place one of them on you.”
“What are they?”
“They will prevent my children from harming you with their weapons.”
The Weg stared at Josh and Josh said, “We are going to a planet where another mother has attacked my children. I’m going to need you to find her and dig a path to her that my children can use to arrive at her location.”
“How long has the Mother been on the planet?”
“Five years.”
“That is going to be a difficult task.”
“Can it be done?”
“One shaft will fail to reach her. Multiple shafts will have to be used.”
“How many will you need to succeed?”
“Five.”
Josh’s eyes narrowed, “Why five?”
“Four shafts will be dug around the center shaft. The Mother’s Children will have to break through the surrounding shafts to stop the center one from getting to her location.”
“Can you dig five shafts fast enough?”
“If given enough time, all five will reach her. Time is the critical component. It’s doubtful you will be given much time.”
“How long will it take to reach her?”
“Between ten and thirty minutes.”
“Do you think you’ll succeed?”
“Probably not but we look forward to the effort. This sounds very interesting.”
“Is there anything that would help you do it?”
/> “If there was some way to distract the first layer of diggers, the odds would improve.”
What do you mean by the first layer of diggers?”
“Most of her defenders will be close to the surface waiting for anything to appear.”
“How close to the surface?”
“Seven hundred yards. Below that level, all the Mother’s Children will be on the same level she is located.”
Josh thought about it and said, “What if we blew five holes nine hundred yards deep in the surface for you to start your digging?”
The Weg turned solid orange, “Now that would make a difference. Most of the defenses are closer to the surface. It would give us a head start on them.”
Josh nodded and the Weg said, “You are probably going to have to collapse the pathways behind us as we move forward.”
Josh stared at the Weg, “We’re what?”
“If you don’t, the Queen’s Children will dig in and rush at us from behind.”
“How do we get out?”
“If we kill the Mother, we’ll dig our way out.”
“And if we don’t.” The Weg shrugged. “Let me see if I can find a way to keep them off us.”
“Those in the outer four pathways will probably be overrun. If you don’t collapse the passages, I don’t see how you can stop the numbers that will be running toward you.”
“We’ll work on that. Has everyone heard what I’m planning?”
“We have.”
“Get the discs distributed and I’ll be bringing you weapons that will help you defend yourselves.” The Weg lifted a shoulder and remained silent as Josh boarded the transport and lifted off the planet. He was barely off the ground when the thoughts of joy began growing behind him. The power of the thoughts grew and he saw the Weg were anticipating a good death.
