by J W Murison
A woman’s voice sounded from the speakers. ‘Oh, please, please hurry, these animals are stinking up my office.’
‘That’s the secretary.’ Charlie added vocally.
There was a loud buzzing and Charlie focused on a voice. ‘This means we are going to move the plans forward. Who knew so many would vote for the Humans. The Albany are not going to be pleased.’
Charlie’s eyes opened and locked on to a group of aliens walking down the corridor.
‘I wonder how many engines they have now? If I know Darrick, he will have everything in place to help them. We probably have as little as two months to finish the Humans off. That is barely enough time. They will have to launch within the next few weeks.’
‘What are those two doing there?’ There was a slight pause. ‘They are unarmed.’ There was a few moment’s silence. ‘Such a small race. It is hard to believe they beat the Albany.’
They passed by and Charlie got up to follow after a few words with Kelly.
The voice came back as Charlie followed the two. ‘I wonder what would happen if I refused the Albany, kept my mouth shut and backed the Humans. No, Darrick was right. Vison is a prick. He has probably already sent word. If I don’t they will probably turn on us. What other allies do we have? None that would or could help. I wonder how many asteroids they have towed out to the barrier now. What a shame all those wonderful creatures will die. That elephant was magnificent. I wonder how long it will live for. My people would have loved to have seen it. The Humans won’t know what’s hit them. Even if their forces catch one or two, even if they catch a hundred, there is bound to be one that gets through. That’s all it will take.’
Steven was not only hearing what the noble was thinking but also catching glimpses of pictures. The news filled him with dread, but he was also hooked. They came to the lift and Steven almost cried out when Charlie bent the weapons in two. He was even more impressed when they shared the same lift.
‘So now I know how they beat the Albany. This one is as dangerous as those giant cats were last night. What physical strength. Oh please stop trying to straighten that weapon, it’s embarrassing. Yet the Human isn’t gloating and he is getting the transport to stop at our destination first. How strange these creatures are. Fascinating.’
‘Don’t even try it son; there simply isn’t enough of you, and if those pair you are guarding are important, then you are going to find yourself in so much shit you will drown in it.’’ Charlie was eyeballing one of the guards whose violent thoughts were encroaching on Charlie’s eavesdropping.
‘“Leave the Human alone.” Yes, leave the Human alone. Soon all of his people will be dead. His mother and father, sisters, brothers, siblings, wife and children. Once their planet is gone they will have nothing left to bargain with and the universe will quickly eradicate them.
‘I wonder if he has a daughter. He looks like a mature male.’ There was a strange sigh. ‘Who am I going to marry Welina to? It’s hard to believe she came into season already. Where did my little girl go? Ardriod is the obvious choice, but Welina doesn’t like him at all. I have seen the snide little shit leer at her. It is obvious his only feelings are lust and power. Who else?’
Charlie’s mind shifted from his to the others he could hear in the lift.
‘Just try it Human.’
‘Please don’t let him attack.’
‘How did he do that? I have been shamed in front of my master. Will I be thrown off the Royal Guard? I will lose everything.’
‘Will thirty six engines be enough? They wanted a hundred and were going to launch them in waves of fifty at a time. Just one will pulverize the planet. They are not going to be happy. I thought it would be years before the Humans gained enough support for a bid. It isn’t our fault. Even the Albany weren’t in a hurry. They will be now. If we hit the planet after they have signed and accepted the galactic laws, we will all be in big trouble. It will take years for the planet to settle, but we have the technology to hurry it along a bit. I can’t believe they are giving us the northern hemisphere. Was Darrick lying? Is it too cold to grow blue grass? Now I know I can renegotiate. The Albany are as crooked as they come. Damn them. I’d love to see them getting chased by those big cats.’
The pod pulled into the space port and they got out without a backward glance. The connection was suddenly broken. Steven pulled the helmet off his head, blinking. He found Charlie sitting looking at him.
‘Wow Charlie, that was surreal. What is this?’
‘It’s a Modloch interrogation device.’
‘Where did you get it?’
‘From a buddy. Babes and I have been playing with it for a while now to try and understand my condition better.’
‘What did you tell the others?’
‘I told them I had overheard a conversation with my fancy new ears. It has been kinda hard to explain. Never mind, they bought it anyway. I thought you might like to see it from this perspective though.’
‘That was awesome. A bit freaky, but awesome.’
‘It is your baby now though.’
‘First we have to find out exactly what we are dealing with.’
‘You haven’t got time to find out Stevie. You need to start moving your chess pieces now.’
‘Don’t worry Charlie, I am aware of that. Don’t take that literally.’
‘Sorry Stevie.’
Stevie got up and Charlie followed. ‘I’m going to talk to Colonel Howe first, then get in touch with Admiral Baxter. I’ll need to recall the crew from wherever they are. Could you do that for me Charlie?’
‘No problems Stevie.’
‘I just got in touch with Komoru, she’s on her way.’
‘The ball is rolling.’
Amanda scowled at them as she regained possession of her own consultation room.
‘Do you know what surprised me the most Charlie?’
‘No, go for it.’
‘It’s how much you swear inside your own mind.’
‘Really?’
CHAPTER 40
Commanders John Logan and Alfie Lloyd sat at their ease in the officers’ lounge. The tedium of the journey was beginning to fray their nerves. For the first week they had caught each other up on the news from home and then fallen into a strange funk. For days they wallowed in their own thoughts. From there they began to talk shop and criticise various alien fighter manuals.
Alfie tossed down the magazine he was reading. John looked up from his kindle. ‘Don’t say it again, I’ll scream.’
‘Oh man, why don’t they shove us in one of those cryo units they got from the Black Planet and let us sleep until we get there.’
‘Stop whining for God’s sake! We are on the fastest transport ship they have.’
‘It’s got to be more fun on the home fleet. We have been sitting round Modloch for the better part of a year. A few patrols, the occasional exercise with the Modloch fleet. At least at home they do real patrolling, and you can go home at night.’
‘Only if your based on world.’
The tannoy blared. ‘Commanders Logan and Lloyd report to the bridge please.’
They passed a look. ‘Sounds interesting.’ Alfie offered.
‘Maybe they got sick of your whining and are going to toss you out an air lock.’
‘Yeah whatever man. Let’s just go see.’
When they reached the bridge they were shown into the tactical briefing room just off it. It wasn’t big, but this was a transport ship and not a fighting vessel.
The Captain was waiting. ‘Gentlemen, take a seat please.’ They obeyed. ‘Your orders have been cancelled. We are changing course to meet the Earth Defence Force Battle Ship the Sir William Wallace. The William Wallace is a training ship. However, the whole of the home battle fleet has been put on high alert. We are expecting an imminent attack by hostile forces. I have no other details. All I know is that you two are to be transferred, where you will both take command of a training wing. Go grab your gear. We will do
ck briefly and you will cross deck.’
Just over two hours later, they were both waiting by the airlock. They felt the shudder as the ships docked and within a minute the crewman was opening the airlock. They stepped aboard into a whole new world. The air was fresh and clean. Everything shone as though it was straight out of the factory. The crewman at the airlock was as smart as a new pin and saluted.
‘If you would like to follow me gentlemen, please.’
With a glance at each other they followed the young crewman. The door had a name plate, Captain J Wilson. What they didn’t expect was the electrifying red haired beauty behind the desk. Both men felt as though they had been punched. She stood and offered her hand.
‘Welcome to the Sir William Wallace gentlemen.’ Still a little stunned they shook her hand. ‘Take a seat please.’ Her body was full figured, her voice feminine. ‘I have to say I am tickled pink to have a couple of real astronauts on board.’
Logan couldn’t help but smile. ‘It is a pleasure ma’am. A bit puzzling, but a pleasure all the same. How can we be of service?’
‘We still aren’t sure of all the details yet. What we do know is this: the Albany are planning to fire asteroids at Earth, causing an extinction level event. They are going to be powered to faster than light speed by a pair of engines that they can retrieve once the asteroid is at the required velocity. We don’t know how many asteroids they are going to launch but we do know there are thirty-six engines completed. That means they can fire eighteen asteroids at us simultaneously.’
‘How the hell are we going to catch asteroids going faster than the speed of light?’ Alfie blurted out.
The Captain took a deep breath. ‘I was hoping you would tell me. The William Wallace is a basic training vessel. We teach troopers to fight in space and pilots to fly. We teach navigators to navigate and officers to command. We were involved in the battles with the Albany and the core crew, including myself, are experienced veterans. We could, if necessary, fight with the ship.
‘At this point we have enough qualified pilots and pilots that have soloed to make up two squadrons. Our training team will make up a third squadron, commanded by my own man. You two will take command of the other squadrons.
‘When our recruits leave here they go on to advanced training groups. Our recruits are mainly from Scotland and the rest of the British isles. However, we also get many from Canada and Australia along with the commonwealth countries. We don’t know how much time we have to prepare. I would appreciate it if you could begin training with your squadron this afternoon. Just take them out, evaluate them. Think tactics. Meet our training team. Settle in. You will be here for the duration of the emergency.’
She looked them up and down, ‘I can see your uniforms are well worn in. I don’t care about your flight gear, but I insist that you visit the quartermasters today at some point and draw a new uniform. The standards of smartness are the same for any training unit. I expect such seasoned officers to appreciate that and act accordingly.
‘I will update the senior staff every morning at nine sharp, and will call an impromptu meeting if anything new or valid comes in. Now, Ensign Shewan is waiting to show you to your quarters.’
CHAPTER 41
A single star shone brightly at the end of the long dark tunnel. A familiar trembling could be felt through the Star fighter’s controls. The display in front of him lit up with a strange rose hue. His eyes flicked over them. He pressed himself back against the head rest and activated the launch sequence. The star fighter snapped out into the deep black of space. He throttled back and waited. His radar screen activated and small dots began to form up on him one at a time.
He took a moment to look around. The beauty of it all was breath taking. They were much closer to the milky way, in fact it now had definition. Strange colours glowed in its deepest depths. There was a familiar bleep in his ears as the last ship joined the formation. He scanned his radar. With a stylus he marked three fighters that were out of formation and sent an automated signal. On board the wayward fighters the students were being told by a metallic voice to pay more heed and get back into formation. He watched as they struggled with the task and took note of the fighter’s designations.
His stylus danced over the screen. He chose to do a twenty degrees turn to port and sent the signal. Once all of the students had confirmed he tapped the execute and his ship turned automatically on to the new heading. Behind him the students’ ships followed their leader automatically.
Throughout the flight he keep feeding the students instructions. His biggest problem was keeping them in formation. At the end of the hour, he plotted the course back to the base ship and sent an automated signal. It was received and landing instructions were sent directly to his computer. He confirmed all instructions were uploaded to his squadron and led them home. During the whole flight not a single word had been spoken.
The lights of the landing bay were bright by comparison and he had to shield his eyes until they adjusted properly. He downloaded data on the flight to his tablet and undocked it from the fighter.
‘How did it go sir?’ Asked a member of his ground crew.
‘It wasn’t great, but better than I had hoped for.’
The two squadrons met in the debriefing room. They had to wait until the two new squadron leaders collated their information in a small room next door. When they came out the noise levels dropped to a strained silence. They also found the Captain leaning against the wall at the back of the room.
The two sat down together. Logan started. ‘We have already been introduced so I will just begin the debriefing. I am aware that, up until now, none of you have executed a tactical launch before. You are more used to your flight instructors screaming in your ears. It is a bit disorientating and you may even feel a little lonely. I don’t care – suck it up. We are now tactical. Radio chatter will give away your position to the enemy, and they are out there. If we run head first into an Albany warship, and you have been talking on your radios, I can guarantee that you will die. As will the whole squadron. We would run straight into an Albany broadside. Commander Lloyd...’
Alfie stood up and began drawing on a whiteboard. ‘When we attack an enemy ship, we do so as a single formation. The aim is to put pressure on the enemies shields and try to overload them, so the main guns from our base ships can penetrate them. Our combat jumps will be coordinated by our base ships, with every squadron from the ship attacking simultaneously. We will deploy decoy squadrons. Instead of half a dozen squadrons – or in this case, three – the enemy will have two dozen squadrons to target. They will not be able to tell the decoys from the real squadrons, unless of course someone speaks on a radio. Your commander may not have the time to cancel the attack. It is immaterial anyway. Once the enemy have your position plotted they can simply follow you around until you do attack. You would have to jump to a point outside the enemy detection range and be redeployed with the following wave. We were both delighted by the fact that everyone managed to follow the orders we sent without using their radios. Commander Logan...’
Logan stood up and began drawing. ‘The system we are using is directional ship to ship communication. I can type a message or select one. A selected message is a simple binary code of a few digits. Your ship will pick it up and relay the selected message. Typed messages, of course, would be longer, which means there is more chance of the transmission being picked up. Don’t make me do that. Orders from our base ship are transmitted to me the same way, as are all major transmissions during a battle. During a major engagement our base ships can, and will, take control of our ships and their firepower. Why do they need pilots then? Because it doesn’t always work out as planned. Shit happens in combat, ladies and gentlemen, that require input from a pilot.’
The had a small chuckle at that.
‘Our major problem today was formation flying. You have to get it right. If your nose is one degree off when we perform a manoeuvre you could end up thousands of miles aw
ay. You do not want to become lost in space. If you are in the middle of a formation and flying on the wrong vector, you could just as easily end up colliding with a fighter turning on a correct vector behind you.’ He demonstrated on the white board. ‘It is also another way the enemy can tell the difference between us and a decoy squadron. I know those that fell short today have just completed their first solo flights and have had no training in formation flying. Get into the simulators and stay at it until you can do it blind folded. You will not get a second chance. If anyone is not up to par on the next flight they will be dropped from the roster.’
He sat down again. ‘We have no idea what we are going to be facing out there. The worst scenario is we meet a fleet or a battle group. There is no best scenario. Neither do we know if we will be crossing the barrier or how long we are going to be going at it. Right now your instructors will be flying CAP patrols. It will be their job to keep all of us safe while we give you an advanced crash course on fighting tactics. As we will be traveling at speed to our patrol area, most of the training will be done in the simulators. However, the Captain has promised that we will stop for an hour every day to practice what you have been learning.’ He nodded to the Captain, who came off her perch and walked down in front of the two men.
She looked over the young faces. ‘We are privileged to have Commanders Logan and Lloyd with us. If you don’t know who they are then you probably shouldn’t be here.’ They all laughed at that. As astronauts and heroes, they were well known to every pilot on the planet.
‘You have an opportunity to learn from the best. It is a very rare opportunity. I sincerely hope you will all make the best of it. To keep you up to date, we are to help patrol an area of the great barrier ten thousand square miles across. We have assets in the area trying to pinpoint the enemy, but intelligence at this time is sketchy. We do know it is an asteroid attack against the planet Earth. We know there are three races involved: the Albany and two of their closest neighbours. They are going to launch asteroids at Earth that will travel faster than the speed of light. Where they are going to launch them from, or the makeup of the forces involved, we simply do not know. We don’t know if we are going to cross the barrier or try to stop the attack from this side. What we do know is that they only have a short window of opportunity to make the attack.
