Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone

by Chris Kennedy

  “Those I can make a dime a dozen,” answered Andrew Brown. “The helium-3 engines don’t use anything fancy in their construction, and there are now enough miners and mining equipment on the moon that we are getting a steady supply of helium-3. I think we have so much of it, in fact, that we just sent down enough to fuel the first couple of power plants on Earth.”

  “So we have missiles?” asked Admiral Wright.

  “Yes, sir,” replied Andrew Brown

  “Engines?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Terrestrial computers and fire control systems?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “It sounds like we just need some airframes, then,” noted Admiral Wright.

  “Yes, sir,” agreed Andrew Brown. “Do you happen to have a couple hundred of those lying around?”

  “I do, actually,” replied Admiral Wright, “In fact, I have thousands.”

  National Museum of the Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, February 9, 2021

  “They want this aircraft out?” asked the assistant director, Major General (Ret.) Tom Bates, gazing up at the giant plane. “They know the bomber’s way back here, and it’s going to take several days for us to get it out and then get everything put back in again, right?”

  “Yeah,” said the director, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Bob Thompson, “they know that. Believe it or not, apparently the old girl is going to fly again, if what I hear is true.”

  “Really?” asked the assistant director. “They have a lot of things that they’ll have to put back into her to get her to fly again.”

  “If they’re really doing what I heard they’re doing,” said the director, “they’re going to put a lot more into her than you’d ever believe.”

  309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, February 9, 2021

  “They’re going to do what with this?” asked Airman Kinsler as he hooked up the tow bar to the nose gear of Bureau Number 152591.

  “I heard they’re going to carry it up to the moon and turn it into a space fighter,” replied Senior Airman Charles from the seat of the tow tractor.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” said Kinsler, gazing up at the metal monstrosity. He had only been at the boneyard for a few weeks and had a feeling that the senior airman was having a joke at his expense. An aircraft storage and maintenance facility, the AMARG was home to more than 4,400 aircraft that had reached the end of their combat lives but were still deemed too valuable to be sold for scrap. Like a giant auto junkyard, some were used as parts lockers for aircraft that continued to fly, saving the services the money they didn’t have to pay for new parts to be made. Others were in various phases of preservation, ready to be called back to action if their nation ever needed them.

  Their planet needed them now.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Sixteen

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, HD 10180, February 10, 2021

  “Holy Word, this is the Vella Gulf, we are beginning our transit,” transmitted the communications officer. Having made that announcement, the Vella Gulf began its run to the stargate. Calvin had decided to hit the stargate at about half the speed of light, or 335 million miles an hour. The Vella Gulf would take well over 11 hours to accelerate to that velocity at 375 G, and they would cover almost two billion miles during that time. The last three days had been busy, but they were finally ready. Everything was set and in place. Now the Terrans just had to thread the needle of the stargate at half the speed of light, turn before they ran into the star and, oh yeah, try to do it without being noticed. No problem.

  But the plan was in place, and it was a good one, Calvin thought. The plan would work. It was too crazy not to. He glanced down at Steropes who stood next to him. “So, how am I doing?” Calvin asked.

  “What do you mean?” Steropes asked.

  “Well, I would bet money that you’re still observing me as one of your hero souls or hero ghosts, or whatever it was,” said Calvin. “Tell me you’re not.”

  “The term was ‘hero spirit,’” Steropes replied. “And it is hard to not evaluate your performance as such when you continue to be central to the events unfolding around you. For example, are you not the person who suggested flying through a stargate at half the speed of light, or do we have someone else to thank for the idea?”

  “No, it was my idea,” Calvin said. He paused, thinking. “Does that mean that this is going to work?” he asked finally.

  “I don’t know,” Steropes said, “but the odds are good that it will not. Studies have shown that over half the time hero spirits fail to accomplish their mission. They risk much, which makes the consequences of failure that much larger.”

  “Take this attempt, for example,” he continued. “If you destroy the asteroid, you will not win the war for the Archons. You will simply allow the status quo which existed beforehand to continue. The consequences of failure, however, are catastrophic. If we get caught before we destroy the asteroid, we will show the Drakuls that we know about the battle station and will make it nearly impossible for the Archons to save themselves from it. No,” he said, shaking his head, “we cannot win the war with this attempt, but we can very possibly lose it.”

  “Then why didn’t you say something to the Archons?” Calvin asked. “Why didn’t you warn them that this is likely to fail?”

  Steropes laughed. “You think that they don’t know this is a huge gamble? That they don’t realize this could cost them the war? The Archons know it as well as I do, and far better than you do, obviously. The only reason that they are going along with the plan is that having a hero spirit on their side gives them a chance, even if it is a small one. Their support of your plan is an indication of just how desperate they are.”

  “I didn’t realize they went along with the plan,” Calvin replied. “They wouldn’t give us a battlecruiser; we had to have Lieutenant Rrower requisition it.”

  “Like I said, the fact they are letting us attempt this at all speaks volumes about how bad their situation is,” Steropes said. “Maybe they didn’t do everything for you that you wanted, but they agreed to let you try, even knowing what the consequences of failure would be. You couldn’t do this without their help, remember? They did promise to move the asteroids in front of the stargate, didn’t they? Hitting an asteroid at half the speed of light would really ruin our day, wouldn’t it?”

  “Uh, yeah, it would,” said Calvin.

  “So, to answer your original question,” Steropes continued, “yes, I am still watching you. How could I not? It is the best show in town, as your people say. And it will continue to be so, right up until you make the mistake that kills us all.”

  Calvin had plenty of time to rest prior to their attempt at transiting the stargate, but he doubted that sleep would come very easily.

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, HD 10180, February 11, 2021

  “This is kind of like landing on the aircraft carrier,” commented Calvin to Sara and Steropes at the science station. “The carrier looks really tiny for the entire approach and then only expands for you to land on during the last few seconds.” He looked at the front view screen. They were only 10 minutes out from the stargate but couldn’t see it yet, even at the Vella Gulf’s highest magnification. Probably because they were going half the freaking speed of light, Calvin thought.

  “We’re on course for the stargate,” noted the helmsman. “10 minutes out.”

  “Understood,” said Captain Sheppard. “Sound General Quarters.”

  “Sounding General Quarters,” said the duty engineer, seated next to the helmsman. The alarm began sounding.

  “I just hope that they moved the asteroids out of the way,” said Calvin, “or things are going to get really rocky.”

  “Another pun like that,” Captain Sheppard announced, “and you’ll be confined to your quarters.” He then smiled at Calvin to show that he appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood.

  Time
seemed to stretch to infinity as they continued toward the stargate.

  This has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, thought Calvin. This is worse than landing on the aircraft carrier at night in a storm. Dumb, dumb, dumb. This is even worse because it was my stupid idea.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” said Captain Sheppard.

  “Umm, I was just thinking that I’d like to go back to landing on the aircraft carrier at night and in bad weather,” Calvin replied. “Where it’s safer.”

  Calvin looked at the countdown timer above the view screen. One minute to go. The stargate still couldn’t be seen on the screen. He also couldn’t see whether the asteroids had been moved or if they were still in place. He decided he didn’t want to know.

  “How are we doing Solomon?” asked Captain Sheppard.

  “We are nominal to profile,” said the ship’s artificial intelligence. “I estimate an 83.6% chance that we will pass safely through the stargate.”

  83.6% seemed like pretty good odds, thought Calvin, as long as you didn’t play them too long. Eventually you were going to hit that 16.4% and crap out. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be the time that he made his fatal error.

  As the timer reached two seconds, the stargate seemed to leap forward at them, its black maw expanding to engulf them. The Vella Gulf hit the stargate at half the speed of light and made the jump.

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, 54 Piscium, February 11, 2021

  The Vella Gulf emerged from the stargate going faster than any ship had ever jumped previously. Before even the Drakuls’ automated systems could react, the Vella Gulf was past the minefield, and the forces arrayed to stop it. Thankfully, none of the defenses were directly in front of the ship. What was directly in front of the ship was 54 Piscium, an orange dwarf star which already covered almost the entire view screen. In the five seconds that it took for the people and systems to recover from transit, the star grew beyond the edges of the screen.

  “Stealth on! Both ships!” ordered Captain Sheppard. “Separate ships! Evasive maneuvers!”

  “Stealth is on!” replied the DSO. “Both ships!”

  The duty engineer pushed a button. “Ships separated!” he replied as the Vella Gulf’s clamps released the Mrowry battlecruiser that the Vella Gulf had been attached to when it entered the system. The Terrans immediately lost sight of the battlecruiser as they left the ship’s stealth bubble, and they were left to hope that the ship’s pre-programmed navigational system would function as programmed.

  “Evasive maneuvers, aye!” replied the helmsman. In a softer voice he said, “Here goes nothing.”

  Clear of the battlecruiser, the Vella Gulf went to emergency power. Mounted backward in relation to the battlecruiser, the Vella Gulf was already pointed away from the star. Slowly the ship began to change its thrust vector. It was going to be close. The helmsman pressed a button and their expected impact point on the surface of the star was displayed on the view screen. Although only 76% of the Sun’s mass and 46% of its luminosity, 54 Piscium was still hot enough to fry the Vella Gulf if the ship got too close. Steropes thought that the shields might protect them for a short while in the corona. Maybe. Slowly....ever so slowly, the impact point on the view screen began to change, moving outward from the center of the star toward the star’s corona.

  Steropes began a countdown, “Three, two, one, impact!” As he said “impact,” there was a giant eruption from the center of the star as the battlecruiser ran into it with its engines set to full power, creating a massive solar flare that covered over 5% of the surface of the star. The flare reached out to the Terrans, but the Vella Gulf was already out of the way, and the flare did no damage.

  “Geryon is on the other side of the star,” Steropes noted. Geryon was the planet closest to 54 Piscium. The size of Saturn, the planet orbited closer to the star than Mercury orbited the Sun. Running into it at the speed they were traveling would have been just as bad, and just as fatal, as running into the star. Thankfully, the ephemeris information the Archons had given them was correct; the planet was currently on the other side of the star.

  As Calvin watched, he saw the ship’s projected impact point clear the corona. That was important, because the whole mission was based on stealth, and everything they had done was with the intention of fooling the Drakuls. He knew that the Drakuls would be aware that a ship had transited the stargate, and that they would have had about five seconds to see them. Calvin had hoped that by coming through so quickly, the Drakuls wouldn’t have gotten a good look at them; their sensors wouldn’t have been prepared for a ship coming through so fast.

  Calvin gave them something to see by attaching the much smaller Vella Gulf to the former Mrowry battlecruiser Halcyon, requisitioned by Lieutenant Rrower when the Archons refused to provide a ship. Lieutenant Rrower had some sort of writ or decree from the emperor; Calvin wasn’t sure how it worked, but all of the royal family was able to command any non-royal officer in the event of an emergency. Lieutenant Rrower determined that this was an emergency, and used his writ to take charge of the Halcyon, which had been passing through the system. Its commanding officer had not been happy to lose his ship, but gave it up after seeing Lieutenant Rrower’s black pelt. The captain and crew of the Halcyon were on a transport back to Grrrnow that Terra would have to pay for at some point in the future.

  About twice as long as the Vella Gulf, the purpose of the Halcyon was to hide the Vella Gulf. From the angles that the Vella Gulf could be seen, the Terrans painted both ships black, making the Gulf more difficult to distinguish by optical systems. The ships stayed attached to each other until the stealth systems came on; after that, the Halcyon was detached so that it could accelerate on its death flight into the star. Calvin figured the Drakuls would get a reading on the mass of the combined ships; the Halcyon accelerated so that its impact would have the same momentum as the combined ships would have at their original speed. Hopefully, the Drakuls wouldn’t notice that the ship hit the star sooner than it should have, but there was only so much he could do. Although the Drakuls would probably have noticed if the Gulf had gone through the corona of the star, the Vella Gulf had avoided the corona and now...hopefully...they would be safe.

  “Somebody talk to me about the forces at the stargate,” said Captain Sheppard. “Are they coming toward us?”

  “It doesn’t appear so,” said Steropes. “They appear to be resetting around the stargate.”

  “That’s what I’m seeing, too,” said the DSO, who had a number of passive systems at his disposal. “The Drakul ships are slowing down and moving back toward the stargate.” He paused and then said. “I think they bought it, Skipper.”

  “Good,” said Captain Sheppard. “Let’s get a survey going of the system. Make sure that we stay well away from all Drakul ships and any stellar outposts.”

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, 54 Piscium, February 12, 2021

  “In addition to Geryon,” said Steropes woodenly, “this system has three other planets. One of them, Olympos, is inhabited. I do not know how much of its indigenous population still resides there.”

  “You know you could go back to your cabin, right Steropes?” asked Captain Sheppard. “You don’t have to stay here and do this.”

  “If I went back to my cabin,” Steropes replied, “I’d have nothing but time to think of everyone and everything I’ve lost. At least this way, I am contributing to what I hope is the Drakuls’ eventual downfall. I don’t know what we can do to stop them, but if it’s in my power to exact some revenge, I intend to.”

  “Revenge is somewhat down our list at the moment,” said Captain Sheppard. “I’m not saying that we won’t be killing plenty of Drakuls sometime soon, because I’m pretty sure that we will; however, any revenge needs to be done within the scope of our mission. We have a job to do, and we need to get it done. Am I clear on that?”

  “Yes,” said Steropes, “you are clear. I would, however, like to go on whatever combat missions we send out.”

  �
��We’ll see about that,” replied Captain Sheppard. “In the meantime, what else can you tell us about the rest of this system?”

  “In addition to Olympos, which is a super-Earth type planet, there are two other super-Earth type planets that are beyond the habitable zone and are too cold to live on. These are named Pavonis and Pindus. The system has two other stargates, in addition to the stargate we came in through. These two gates lead to Kepler 68 and Gliese 876. The Kepler 68 gate leads to Hooolong space; the Gliese gate leads to the Drakul home world, as well as back to Earth. 54 Piscium also has a brown dwarf companion star, but it is too far away to affect our mission here.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Seventeen

  Bridge, Drakul Ship Destruction of Olympos, Ross 154 System, February 14, 2021

  It wouldn’t be long now, thought Bullig, recently promoted to admiral to lead the next assault. Although he had enjoyed the sense of anticipation at first, he was ready for the attack to begin. Perhaps he should have allowed his crews to destroy another one or two of the Terran ships. If he had, they might have been able to capture some live samples of the new food source.

  At least the Overlord was happy with the samples Admiral Bullig sent back to Drakon. Rather than making Bullig return for punishment, the Overlord agreed to send a few more ships from the 54 Piscium system to assist in the assault of the Terran home world. With the new battle station operational, the Overlord decided to pull some of the ships from the defense of that system to aid in the conquest of Terra. A cruiser had just entered the system to advise him that two more battleships, four battlecruisers and seven cruisers were on the way. It also brought a message from the Overlord. These ships were the only ones he was going to get. He either needed to take the system or die trying.