OMEGA Conscript

by Stephen Arseneault

  The Chancellor asked, "And what of your Talisan brothers and sisters?"

  I chuckled. "No, I don't think they would be good at that job. They have a lack of moral fiber. Not that they are bad, but they can too easily be both good or bad. The Talisan follow their emperor, wherever it is that he may lead them."

  The Chancellor continued, "Is there no species that you would find honorable enough to serve?"

  I replied, "Species, no, but there are individuals among the species who would have to do. The hope would be that you get enough reasonable ones together that they can make sound decisions for governing everyone. We had that for two thousand years before the current leadership corrupted the system and overthrew it. I have seen what works. It may be difficult for us to achieve, that's all."

  After my talk with the Chancellor had come to an end, I returned to the Garmon. Go and Garrett had implemented a kill switch for the AIs and turned their efforts toward building ships. A design was settled upon which was slightly larger than the Garmon, with an outer hull that was three times as thick.

  The Odentas' laser reflection technology was applied to the hull designs, making them much less vulnerable to the Grotus laser threat. The Odenta and Talisan scientists and engineers quickly had a working model of the gravity weapon, which turned out to not be much of a weapon. An opposing ship or missile could be pulled toward or pushed away from a gravity emitter. The power needed for this task came from emitting the gravitational wave as a beam. Its use as a weapon was theorized to come into play only if the opposing ship was coming directly at you at the time a gravity beam was emitted. If its gravity shield could be overwhelmed, a repulsive beam might actually penetrate the forward decks of a ship, in theory.

  Within a month, the number of AIs had topped four thousand and the autobots just over a million. Garrett watched diligently for the first sign of robotic trouble. None had come.

  As the first of the Garmon class cruisers took flight, an evening was taken for celebrations. I liked the Odenta people: they were warm, thoughtful, and friendly, like many of the Humans I had come across during the days of the AMP.

  The following day we took the Garmon and our newest cruiser, the Odentus, out for flight tests. After a day in the heavens, we returned to the planet's surface. The new ship had performed perfectly in every category of test.

  Jack offered a suggestion. "It will take some time to get a fleet together that we can take back to Doomlight. However, this might be a good opportunity for us to go back to check on the situation. We can stop short with the Odentus and Garmon, allowing Garrett to go in close with the Jess to spy. It would also be the next logical step for testing out the Odentus."

  After a moment of thought, I replied, "Your suggestion has merit. I'll run it by the Chancellor when I see him in about an hour. We can run the same crew that we ran on the tests yesterday. When we get back, they can be assigned to train new crews."

  That afternoon the Garmon and Odentus lifted off. The trip to Doomlight brought several surprises. When the gravity pulsor was configured as an attractor, it could be used as a tractor beam. The Odentus crew repeatedly practiced pulling the Garmon in closer to her location. The Jess was taken out and on several occasions pulled into the docking bay on the cruiser's side.

  As a second surprise, when configured as a repulsor, the device could be used to increase the ship's forward momentum. With the repulsor running free, the Odentus would outpace the Garmon's speed, by as much as 15 percent. In the dead of space, speed offered a critical advantage.

  The weakness of the Odentus was her weapons. A complement of thirty-six full-size and forty-eight quarter-size missiles was all she had. Considering the fights that we could possibly be in, it was not a sufficient offensive capability.

  A second drawback of the Odentus was her generators. The inefficient ion generators required the assistance of nuclear reactors to provide the necessary energy to fully operate the ship with all her features and functions. The nuclear core would also have to be replaced once a year as the fermium that drove it became depleted. It was not a major undertaking, but deficient from ideal, none the less.

  When we arrived in the vicinity of Doomlight, Garrett was dispatched in the Jess. An hour later he had a report.

  Garrett opened a comm. "Salton's fleet is under attack! It's not the Grotus, though. I can't tell, but I suspect it's the Moddle. I count four hundred plus ships against thirty-two remaining Salton battleships. There is debris from ships everywhere around the battle scene. They're fighting in high orbit, just where we nuked the Grotus.

  I jumped on the comm. "Is there any fighting down on the planet?"

  Garrett replied, "I don't see any signs of attacks going on planet-side. It looks to only be a fleet battle. And the opposition is winning. Wait, another two hundred ships just came up on the sensors. Give me a second... it's more of the same. If I was the captain on one of those Salton ships, now would be the time that I turned to run."

  Jack shook his head. "There's only one problem with that, Garrett. They have nowhere to run. Unless that portal is open, they are stuck fighting it out. I just checked the speed of those incoming ships on your data feed. They easily match that of those battleships."

  The captain of the Odentus, Gar Thexan, an Odenta, hopped on the comm channel. "Sirs, this might be a good opportunity to test out the capabilities of this ship. We can sit just out of the range of the attackers, firing a gravity beam at them. If they should choose to pursue us, we have the faster ship."

  I replied, "Captain, you do realize that if something were to go wrong you would need to self destruct that ship. We can't afford to let that gravity technology fall into enemy hands."

  The captain came back with a solemn response. "Sir, that is a risk we are willing to assume. If we are to train others on the use of our technologies, we should first make use of it ourselves. As to the self destruct, should we face capture, I believe everyone aboard is willing to make that sacrifice if necessary. We are duty-bound to do so."

  I nodded. "I didn't intend to question anyone's determination or honor, Captain. If you feel that your crew is ready to test the gravity device, I will leave that call up to you."

  The Odentus moved forward to just past Garrett's position in the Jess. The gravity device was brought online and the first beam sent out.

  Shortly after, the captain returned status. "The first target has been pushed back from the battle. We are moving to target number two."

  Garrett remarked. "Hey, one thing the sensor is showing is that ship they pushed no longer has a gravity shield out front. If we can knock that out it makes our ion cannons, and the nukes, that much more effective."

  Jack said, "Not only that, it pretty much limits those ships to sub-light speeds. Without that gravity deflector they don't stand a chance again space dust or other debris."

  I joined the conversation. "Captain, test to see what the minimum amount of beam duration is that is required to take out a gravity shield."

  The captain replied, "Will do."

  Several seconds later the captain continued. "We are running fifteen millisecond pulses, requiring about five seconds of burst."

  I nodded. "Captain, target every ship you can to knock out those shields. And don't worry about pushing them back. They will back out on their own if they lose that shield. This might be just the thing the Salton ships need to stay alive."

  One-by-one the attacking ships lost their forward deflectors. As each ship succumbed to our new weapon, it moved back from the field of battle. After fifteen minutes of the Odentus handing out damage, the attacking fleet withdrew.

  Garrett commented, "Should we stick around?"

  I replied, "I think we have to."

  ~~~~~

  Once again, this Human is asking for your help! If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on the site where it was purchased. And by all means, please tell your friends! Any help with spreading the word is highly appreciated! I have a free science fiction eB
ook short story, titled "THE SQUAD", waiting for anyone who joins my email list. Also, find out when the next exciting release is available by joining the email list at comments@arsenex.com. Visit the author's website at www.arsenex.com for the rest of the series and other works!

  Thank you for reading my work! I hope you have a great day!

  Stephen

  Books written by Stephen Arseneault

  SODIUM Series

  A six-book series that takes Man from his first encounter with aliens all the way to a fight for our all-out survival. Do we have what it takes to rule the galaxy?

  AMP Series

  Cast a thousand years into the future beyond SODIUM. This eight-book series chronicles the struggles of Don Grange, a simple package deliveryman, who is thrust into an unimaginable role in the fight against our enemies. Can we win peace and freedom after a thousand years of war?

  OMEGA Series

  Cast a thousand years into the future beyond AMP. The Alliance is crumbling. When corruption and politics threaten to throw the allied galaxies into chaos, Knog Beutcher gets caught in the middle. Follow along as our hero is thrust into roles that he never expected nor sought. Espionage, intrigue, political assassinations, rebellions and full-on revolutions, they are all coming to Knog Beutcher's world!

  HADRON Series

  HADRON is a modern day story unrelated to the SODIUM-AMP-OMEGA trilogy series. After scientists using the Large Hadron Collider discover dark matter, the world is plunged into chaos. Massive waves of electromagnetic interference take out all grid power and forms of communication the world over. Cities go dark, food and water supplies are quickly used up, and marauders rule the highways. Months after the mayhem begins, and mass starvation has taken its toll, a benevolent alien species arrives from the stars. Only, are they really so benevolent? Find out in HADRON as Man faces his first real challenge to his dominance of Earth!

  Find them all at www.arsenex.com.