by Ira Tabankin
“Thank you. He should have enough meat to fill her stomach.” Two lab workers led the human male away to be cleaned up, they then returned him to the questioning table where artificial increased gravity held him down.
The Emperor told Tigone, “I am interested in this female. I have never seen red hair before or the spots on her face. Is she diseased?”
“No, sire. Her memory told us they are called freckles. It appears their people have different color hair, and many of those with red hair have these spots. I find them extremely attractive.”
“I do too. Release her. Have her sent to my manager who will prepare her for me. When I’m done with her, you may mate with her to see if you can impregnate her. Maybe if the male can’t create a new race of slaves, the female can. If both can, then the grays will be contracted to bring us more of these humans.”
Tigone and the Emperor watched the first Neanderthal female slave brought in and forced to mate with the human male. The Emperor said, “She is docile. Drugged?”
“Brain implanted. She is able to perform many chores for us.”
“Ah, a good example. I think I know this one. Yes, she once was one of mine who displeased me. I see she hasn’t lost any of her beauty. If the human had any of his brain functions left, he might enjoy the gift you’re giving him. I assume you didn’t have to drain the human female?”
“No, sire, she quickly told us everything we asked. The male thought he could fight us, so we had to use the AI to drain everything he knew. Of course, this left him without his memories, but he doesn’t need them as a slave.”
The Emperor laughed as he watched the human female being led away to be cleaned and prepared to please him.
The next morning, the Emperor met with Tigone. “I believe you have discovered our lost home. I’m approving your request for the special ship. Send one, not two. We can’t afford to lose any, so do not enter into any battles with it. I have decided to hold onto the human female.” Smiled the Emperor. “I have enjoyed her and wish to keep her for a while. When I am done, I will return her to you. Place an order with the grays for a few more of the humans, I think females are the best, we won’t have to mind clear them like you had to do with their male.”
“Yes, sire. I will do so.”
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The Neanderthal’s special ship had cost a fortune and it had taken over ten years to develop and build a small number of. Each ship held a crew of only twenty. The ship was only three hundred feet in length, two hundred feet of which was taken up by the reactors and generators to power the ship’s unique coatings and masking shield generators mounted on the ship’s hull.
What made the ship so unique was she was almost invisible both to sensors and visually. She used a series of special coatings and cameras to make the ship undetectable. There was even internal coating which shielded the ship’s energy use from being detected by other ships. Its ion exhaust was also masked. The ships were so secret they were kept inside a base which was a hollowed-out small moon that orbited the last planet in the system. It had taken the lives of a million slaves to build the base.
The ship, Ngre 1, after one of the race’s greatest emperors quickly opened a wormhole and jumped towards Earth’s system. To save energy, the crew didn’t engage their masking technology until they exited from the wormhole. What the ship’s crew didn’t know was Kalteck had seeded Earth’s system with millions of very small sensors, three of these recorded the energy release of the wormhole. Kalteck’s AI notified him, “Kalteck, our sensors have reported an anomaly one light hour past Pluto’s orbit. The energy was from the opening of a wormhole.”
Kalteck nodded while looking at the data, “Wait, I see the energy from the wormhole opening, but I don’t see any energy signature of a ship coming through the wormhole. Are you sure this was an artificial wormhole opening in the system?”
“It was. I have double-checked our sensors in the area, and all confirm the wormhole opened and closed. However, it doesn’t appear that a ship entered or left the system.”
“How is that possible?”
“I do not know. I have no records of any similar event ever happening before. The wormhole doesn’t match a naturally occurring event either, hence it had to be artificially created. I am not aware of any race which can open a wormhole just to look through it.”
“Damn it, ready the ship, I guess we better check it out. Have you sent the information to Rhett?”
“Of course. He is just starting a meeting with the President. Should I mark the message as urgent?”
“No. He will know what to do. Tell him we’re going to perform a scan of the area.”
“Kalteck, the Earth ship Lincoln which was preparing for her shakedown run is preparing to investigate. Should we still launch?”
“No. Let’s see how the Earthlings perform on an unusual mission. This could prove to be an excellent test for them. I assume you’re connected with their AI.”
“Of course, I am. The Lincoln has just left her dock. She is fully armed.”
“I’d feel a lot better if Rhett was on board her. He’s the only experienced officer they have. I know they need to gain experience to have experience. Who’s the ship’s commander?”
“Rear Admiral Dune.”
“Dune?”
“Yes, do you know him?”
“No, but I find it unusual he’s named after one of their greatest science fiction stories. Does he have a good record?”
“Kalteck, he has an excellent one. He’s commanded two carrier strike groups, and both were engaged in battles.”
“Ah, I feel better now.”
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Rhett had just been shown into the new Situation Room, where the President waited for him. He saluted her as she motioned him to a couch across from her with a glass coffee table between them.
“Admiral, it is good to see you. There is coffee and other refreshments on the cart. Please help yourself.”
Just before Rhett turned to get some coffee, his implant informed him of the unknown wormhole opening. He stopped moving which caught President Haley’s eye, “Admiral are you receiving a message on your implant? Is everything alright?”
“Yes, Madam President. It appears a wormhole opened past Pluto’s orbit. What’s strange is, according to Kalteck’s sensors, no ship entered or left our system. Admiral Dune pinged me for permission to check it out. I approved his request, so the Lincoln is leaving to investigate. I’m confused because Kalteck told me wormholes don’t open and close naturally. When they open and close as this one did, it usually means either a ship, a probe, or a weapon entered or left our system.”
The President nodded her agreement. “Do you think this is the precursor of the invasion? Should we sound the alarms and order the people into the shelters?”
“Madam. President, I would like to see what our scans and the Lincoln find. I wish we were further along with our production, but if the invasion comes, we’ll fight. We always enter wars with what we have when the first shot is fired. We’ve always relied on our ability to outproduce our enemy. However, this time, we’re the Mayans when the Spanish arrive. We’re generations behind, and for the first time, we won’t have the production advantage.”
The President was saddened by the blunt message Rhett gave her. “Thanks for the blunt wake up call. I think I needed that to remind me we’re not only the underdog, but we’re also facing a fight with a vastly superior force whose technology is more advanced than ours. Admiral, based on all of the disadvantages we face, how can we win?”
Rhett smiled, “Madam President, we win by playing dirty. When the invasion comes, we’re going to meet them at the edge of our system and try to slow and whittle them down, and then they’re going to learn we too are experts in the art of war. Even Kalteck was surprised by some of our weapon ideas. He told me his people never thought of using mines. Between what he’s done and the new mines we’re building like small candies, we’re seeding the system with hundreds of billio
ns of mines and are deploying more every day. We have nanite and robot factories doing nothing but building mines and a new weapon we believe can jam their shield generators.”
“I hadn’t heard of that system. Is it new?”
“It’s something Kalteck and I have been discussing for months. He’s experimenting with an idea some of our electronic warfare experts had thought of. If it works, it might come as a rude surprise to the enemy. We’ve been keeping it a very dark secret and out of our ship-based AIs. The system is called Joke 1A.”
“I like that. Joke 1A, that ought to confuse anyone. Don’t the AIs have the ability to network together and figure out what the code is?”
“While they are networked. Kalteck programmed the AIs with instructions that they can’t open the files. If they can’t open them, the enemy AIs will also get a little surprise when the enemy hacks our AIs and yes, we’re expecting them to hack ours. They’re much more advanced then we are. Their hack will release a number of trojan horses into their systems. We know that most will get caught. All we need is one to succeed to burrow into their system.”
“Can we read their language to hack their systems?”
“AIs are much more intelligent than us. We couldn’t manage the ships without them. We’re hoping we’re able to hack their systems when they attempt to hack ours. Once one of our trojan horses succeeds we may be able to remotely take down their shields or if the Good Lord agrees, we might be able to turn their weapons on their own ships.”
They spoke for two additional hours before the President asked, “Admiral, can we defeat them?”
“Madam President, the right question is, can we survive, and my answer is, I pray we will. It all depends on how many ships they send against us and when they arrive. Every day delay enables us to continue building ships and training their crews. Every day delay in them arriving gives us an additional day to expand our shelter program and train our ground forces and anti-air forces. Madam President, we’re all doing the best we can.”
The President nodded her head. “Admiral, thank you. I hope they give us the time you need to save us.”
“Madam President, So, do I. So do I.”
Chapter 18
The Ngre 1’s captain smiled as they entered the unknown and unexplored system. “Engage all masking systems and engage best possible stealth speed. Our sensors say the third planet is the one we want. Keep all of our sensors up and the crew alert in case we run into something unknown.”
The first officer, a large Neanderthal dressed in dark gray with three blue stars over his heart responded, “Yes, sir. Sir, the system appears to be clear except for some strange drifting small objects which our sensors can’t identify.”
The AI announced, “ALERT, ALERT, a large ship has left orbit from the third planet’s moon, it’s current course will take it to the point where our wormhole closed. The ship is exceptionally large, our sensors report it is in excess of one standard measurement and is powered by a matter/antimatter reactor. I can say with one hundred percent certainty the ship is a warship.”
The captain asked, “Can its sensors see us?”
“Captain, I do not know. As the ship is an unknown and the race are an unknown, I have zero reference points in order to make a decision.”
“That is an unacceptable response. How do you expect me to make an intelligent decision without any data?”
“Captain, I am not programmed to make decisions without data either. I am not a biological imperfect being like you. I do not have instincts and I do not have a gut to make a gut decision. I am programmed to make decisions based on hard data. I have none available to me except to report to you the ship heading in this direction is a warship. It out masses us by at least fifty times. It carries a large central mass driver/rail gun which if it could strike us, would destroy us.”
“What do you recommend we do about the warship?”
“Avoid it. So far it hasn’t taken notice of us which leads me to believe it can’t see us. I would therefore recommend we reduce speed and continue on our current course. I would also suggest we avoid the small floating objects which may be some sort of sensor. They are artificially made and there appear to be over 1 to the twelfth power of them.”
“AI, reduce speed to one third and follow your suggestion. Do whatever you believe is best to avoid the warship and those unknown objects. I do not want to engage that ship or any other in this system. Our orders are to perform a recon of the system and collect data on the beings who live here.”
The UESS Lincoln passed the Negr 1 without taking any notice of the Neanderthal ship. When the two ships were next to each other, the captain of the Negr 1 said, “Don’t change anything, don’t make any sudden moves, don’t do anything. Let’s silently pass that monster and continue with our mission.”
They watched the Lincoln pass them. Their AI collected every bit of passive data it could collect. The captain reminded the AI, “Remember, stealth is key. They are not supposed to know we are here. Do not use any sensor which would let them know anything about us.”
“Captain, you can trust me…”
“I do not trust any artificial life. I only trust those who have sworn allegiance to our Emperor. Not a box of artificial circuits.”
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Admiral Dune kept asking the sensor officer, “Anything? There has to be something on the sensor net. A wormhole doesn’t open and close by itself. There has to be a ship out here somewhere. I want it found. If it’s an enemy ship that somehow has a masking system we’ve never seen before we need to locate it and destroy it before it reaches Earth.”
“Sir, our sensors haven’t located a thing out of place. We’ve recorded the opening and closing of the wormhole, but we haven’t seen anything come out of it.”
“That is an unacceptable answer. I want to know where that unknown ship is. Launch two squadrons of Piranhas to extend our sensor range.”
“Sir, what are their ROE (rules of engagement)?”
“Don’t open fire unless they’ve been fired on. I don’t want to start a galactic war on the eve of an invasion. Make sure those hotshots understand, if their thumbs touch their firing buttons before they’re fired on or before I give them permission, I’ll cut their thumbs off and shove them up their ass. And tell them to watch their screens so they don’t run into one of the mine fields.”
“Yes, sir.”
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The captain of the Negr 1 couldn’t believe his good luck. “By the mercy of the Overlords, they’ve given us a front row spot to watch and record them launching their small ships. Let’s see if we’re able to get a look inside that ship as they launch their ships. Keep our drive off, we’re drifting at a good enough speed. I don’t want any emissions or energy signature which might tip them off we’re here. This ship is like magic. AI how good are their sensors?”
“Captain, I was going to tell you, some of their sensors are very similar to the Overlords.”
“WHAT? Are you sure? Have you run a self-diagnostic cycle?”
“That is an insult, of course I did. I’ve double checked the readings. Their sensors correspond to a set of sensors of the Overlords from their visit two rotations ago.”
“Confirm that ship is using Overlord sensors, but not their latest version.”
“That is what I said.”
“Have you analyzed the ship, does it match anything in the Overlord’s fleet, current or past?”
“Captain, that is also unusual. While the ship is using Overlord sensors and their reactors closely match the power output of the Overlords’, nothing else on the ship or their small ships match. The overall design of the ship, both the mother ship and the small ones are completely new. The crew matches the species known as humans from the third planet in this system. Their sensors were good enough to take notice of our wormhole opening and closing, but so far, they haven’t been able to see us. I cannot project if they will be able to retune their sensors to locate us. Since their sensors ar
e a match for the Overlords’ we’ve just witnessed that we may be able to sneak up on our masters without them knowing we’re there until we open fire.”
“Are these humans also part of the Overlords’ subjects? I don’t want to upset the Overlords by breaching some unknown rule about these creatures.”
“The only information I have on these beings are what Tigone was able to retrieve from the two subjects the grays captured for us.”
“Take us closer to the third planet. Don’t use the main drive. I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t want that warship or its small craft to see us.”
“Yes, sir. I am making very small course adjustments which will place us near their moon. I am picking up signals from the planet, should I show you?”
