by Ira Tabankin
“As Kalteck would say, I pray to the Creator of All to guide our hands and help us pull this crazy stunt off.”
Admiral Dune raised his beer, “To the Creator of all.”
“To the Creator of All.” Replied Rhett. Yes, to the Creator of All, I believe I’ll finally get to meet you. I wonder if Liane is waiting for me, will she be angry with me for having the nanites and outliving her? Will she understand I didn’t have anything to do with them? To the Creator of all. I raise my beer to you.
Chapter 29
Rhett and Dune had over a thousand people and hundreds of robots work on converting the enemy’s command ship into the universe’s largest bomb. Nanites and robots welded two small freighters to the hull of the command ship as pallets of antimatter were secured in the ship.
During the conversion, the colony ships made their runs picking sleeping people up and dropping them off at their new home world. Rhett had his implant inform him of the slowly growing numbers of humans who’d been resettled. He continued to focus on the numbers while thinking it wasn’t enough, but he didn’t know how to increase it.
Rhett also kept track of the destruction on Earth, I’m not sure the planet can heal herself. The mantel’s been broken in many places. The ring of fire has spread so much lava and toxic gases combined with the debris from the billions of fires, the atmosphere resembles what they once said it would look like after an all-out nuclear war. The sun isn’t reaching the ground. I don’t know how to blow holes in the dense, oily, smoky clouds or if this continues will the air even be safe for us to breath? They may have won without even returning to finish us off, if we can’t live on Earth and we don’t have enough ships to take us to a new world, then they’ve won. Huge holes have been ripped through our ozone layer, our magnetic field which protected us from solar radiation has been severely damaged, they may have destroyed any chance we can return to Earth. Near the end, they’ll offer to save the few who survive in exchange for our bowing to them and what choice will we have? Death or slavery, what a shitty choice.
Admiral Dune pinged Rhett, implant to implant, “Rhett, good news, bad news.”
“Give me the bad first.”
“We have energy indications they are returning. The good is the command ship-bomb is ready to launch.”
“Launch it, we can’t risk them seeing it or they may stop it and we’re doomed. I have the coordinates you sent me of where the wormhole is most likely going to open, I’m sending the Neanderthal ships to meet them, that ought to slow them down a little. All we need is a couple of minutes for our wormhole to open and we send our bomb through it. Then, may God forgive us for the number of beings we’re about to kill. I didn’t even ask the AI what the repercussions of destroying a star and it’s solar system would be for the rest of the universe.”
“Don’t worry about it. What will be, will be. We need to get that ship out of here.”
“Done, the wormhole is opening.”
“Rhett so is theirs. It’s now a race.”
“Admiral, it’s been a pleasure serving with you. May God smile on us and here they come. My AI counts eight hundred ships. The Neanderthals are firing into the mouth of the wormhole.” The two admirals watched the battle unfold between their enemy and the Neanderthals. Rhett continued, “They’ve managed to explode enough ships to close the wormhole on the enemy’s fleet, that will take care of some of them.” When the wormhole crashed closed, it released massive doses of hard radiation which struck the human fleet. Rhett worried the radiation might affect the crew, his AI told him the ship’s shields held back the radiation, however, if the blast was just a little larger, even less than 10% higher, the crew would suffer radiation sickness and deaths.
Rhett inquired to the fleet AI, What’s the status of the bomb?
“It safely entered the wormhole, if our calculations were correct, it will exit within a tenth of one light second of their star, or less than 20,000 miles.”
“Good, at that distance by the time they think about acting it will be too late. All we have to do is survive the current battle until their system dies. Maybe, just maybe they’ll realize there’s nothing left worth fighting for. If they continue and we can defeat them, we’ll end their reign of terror across who knows how many systems.”
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Across the Milky Way galaxy, a worm hole opened just above a system’s star. Alarms screamed through the system that an alien wormhole was opening. Since this system’s race considered themselves the ‘master race,’ more intelligent and with the universe’s best war machine, they hadn’t ever experienced an alien wormhole opening in their system. It took their AIs a moment to calculate the danger. The Emperor was reviewing the war against the humans when the alarms in his palace screamed. He turned to his chief military aide, “Please turn them….”
He never completed his sentence. The repaired command ship was quickly captured by the system’s star’s gravity which sucked it into the star where the millions of tons of antimatter exploded. The eruption, the largest ever produced outside of a star turning super nova rippled through the star. The star began to quickly burn its fuel and also began compressing, in the blink of an eye, the star exploded. The event happened so quickly that no one could have taken shelter, and if they were in a shelter, it wouldn’t have mattered.
The explosion sent a wave of hard radiation followed by a wave of plasma that washed over every planet in the system. Nothing survived the double whammy of radiation and plasma. Ships in the system were vaporized. When the double waves passed through the system, nothing was left in its wake. The humans had succeeded in destroying the enemy’s home system. However, the enemy ships in Earth’s system didn’t know they couldn’t go home, they were in a dog fight with the Neanderthal’s ships.
Rhett was losing hope the Neanderthals could hold back the swarm of the enemy’s ships which continued to pour through the wormhole. Rhett thought, if we destroyed their system, shouldn’t the wormhole close on our end. Before he could complete his thoughts the wormhole belched a massive energy wave a moment before it slammed close trapping the enemy’s ships inside of the wormhole and destroying ones at the event horizon or those which were caught directly in front of the expanding wave of hard radiation which shot out of the wormhole.
Rhett watched the Enterprise die as three of the enemy’s large ships struck her with bright blue energy beams which overloaded her shields and then burned through her hull. The Enterprise was literally cut up like they were slicing a cake. Sections of the Enterprise drifted away from each other. They twisted and spun in space as only a few hundred escape pods ejected away from the dying ship.
Rhett kept track of the numbers of ships dying on each side. He couldn’t stop the enemy’s bombers from unloading their massive load of kinetic rods which were dropped on Earth’s remaining cities, towns and infrastructure. By the time Rhett’s Piranhas could reach the bombers they’d already emptied their bomb bays and were leaving orbit. It was the same as closing the barn door after the horses had left the barn. Either way, the Piranhas destroyed all of the empty bombers.
Rhett called his surviving Earth ships to form a small formation of the Lincoln, the wounded Patrick Henry, and five Battleships. All the rest of the Earth ships had been destroyed. Rhett asked the remaining Neanderthal ships to join his formation. Out of the two hundred which had come to Earth to help, only sixty had survived.
Arranged against Rhett’s ships were two hundred of the enemy, Rhett used his implant in an attempt to communicate with the enemy, “This is the combined Fleet Admiral Rhett McIntire. I am asking you to stop your attack. There is no reason for the continued war. Our sensors report your home system has been destroyed. We can share what remains of Earth, we can live there in peace. We shouldn’t be killing each other, there are so few of us left, we should set aside our differences and work together to reclaim both Earth and Mars. If we work together, we can manage it, if we continue our war, neither of us nor our planets will survive.”
“You destroyed our home system, so we will destroy yours. After you watch your once pretty blue planet die, we will destroy every human wherever they live. Humans will be hunted across the universe. You can’t kill all of us, you are too backward of a race to accomplish that.”
“We might be backward, but we managed to destroy your home world and your entire system. As you’ve seen, we also managed to break the bond between your people and the Neanderthals. They know the truth. They know you took them from Earth and by attacking Earth, you have attacked their ancient home world. You’ve created a race which won’t stop until they kill each one of you. If you agree to work with us, we offer to negotiate with the Neanderthal Emperor for you.”
“We do not require any assistance. When we complete the destruction of Earth, we will turn our attention to the Neanderthal world.”
The Lincoln shook from multiple strikes. Alarms screamed saying the hull had been breached. Rhett watched ships die on each side while the Earth was covered with dense smoke until the surface wasn’t visible from space.
Rhett ordered all of their existing mines to strike the enemy’s ships. Thousands of the mines flew into the enemy formation. Shields flared, antimatter explosions tore hulls open, but the enemy ships didn’t stop their firing on the few human/Neanderthal ships.
The Lincoln took a major hit which again destroyed the Flag Bridge. All of the crew died, Fleet Admiral McIntire lay badly injured on his side. He was bleeding from multiple wounds. The bones from his rebroken legs stuck through his skin. The nanites worked to save him. They decided his only hope was to place him into a coma and begin cutting off the nerves and blood supply to nonessential areas of his body.
Rhett didn’t see the Patrick Henry explode in a massive flash of light. She had been struck by over a dozen multi-gigaton particle beams which overwhelmed her shields and then they cut through her armored hull and two struck her antimatter reactor which allowed the antimatter to break free of her magnetic bottles.
The Enterprise had been cut into ten sections, all of whom were spinning in different directions. The Sun Tzu had been lost earlier; the Mao was floating powerless on a 30-degree angle. She was leaking atmosphere and water from hundreds of hull breaches. None of the Battleships had survived and only nine of the Neanderthal ships were still rated as battle ready when a wormhole opened and ten of Kalteck’s ships arrived. They dealt the final card of death to the enemy who hadn’t expected them and most of whom had suffered some damage.
Kalteck’s ships destroyed or captured the remaining enemy ships. Kalteck himself took a shuttle to the Lincoln which was streaming atmosphere, water, and blood. He and two escorts covered in an armor which changed color and texture to match its surrounding had to cut their way into the damaged Lincoln. The ship’s hull had received so many hits, the hatches wouldn’t unlock and open. Many of the internal hatches were also bent and sealed. Compartments were cut off from one another. Bodies and the wounded lay in all of the still sealed compartments. The interior of the mighty ship was filled with smoke, fires in some compartments burned out of control. The automatic fire suppression system had gone off line when its computer was destroyed.
Kalteck was amazed at the amount of damage he saw. He ordered his two escorts to call for more assistance and to see if they could get the ship stabilized or the few surviving crew taken off the ship. He attempted to reach out to the ship’s AI through his implant, the AI responded it was extremely damaged and the last record it had of the whereabouts of the Fleet Admiral was he was on the Flag Bridge. However, the Flag Bridge had received a direct hit and was currently listed as out of action and destroyed with loss of all crew. Kalteck shook his head, No, I won’t believe he’s gone. I’m sure I might have felt something if he’d gone to be with the Creator of All. He must still be clinging to life somewhere. The nanites would be doing everything possible to keep him alive.
Kalteck pushed debris aside as he attempted to make his way through the burned corridors of the Lincoln. Many of the corridors were blocked with debris or were torn open to space. He refused to give up in his search for his friend.
Kalteck was amazed the ship continued to even exist given the amount of damage she’d received. He continued his search for Rhett who he found on the remains on the smoke-filled Flag Bridge. Kalteck picked up his almost dead friend. Kalteck whispered, “Come my friend, today is not a good day to die. I have a new medical suite which can save you or at least save your memory and maybe even your soul. I can’t believe you’re still alive, your body is crushed, broken and burned. The nanites I gave you are working overtime to keep you alive.”
Rhett didn’t hear his friend or know he was being carried out of the dying ship, he’s breathing was shallow and very slow, his heart was slowing due to the lack of blood. Kalteck paused to connect his implant to the ship’s AI, “AI, announce abandon ship, tell the crew to make their way towards my ships, my people will attempt to save as many humans as possible, the Lincoln is dead.”
Kalteck heard the ship’s AI announce his instructions through the ship. He smiled hearing escape pods begin to jettison from the dying ship. He softly carried Rhett, AI, what is Rhett’s condition?”
“He is dying. His injuries are too grave for his nanites to repair. They are working to save his life. They could not save his legs or right arm. His left lung is punctured, his liver, stomach and spleen are damaged. He has eleven broken ribs and his spine is cracked in two places. Even if the nanites could repair or replace his legs, the damage to his spine is very severe. Due to his injuries his nanites are protecting only his heart and brain.”
“How long do we have until it’s too late?”
“Ten minutes, four is better. Kalteck, he is rapidly fading, he is almost gone.”
Kalteck ran through the damaged Lincoln until he came to the connecting tunnel which connected his ship with the Monitor. He gently placed his dying friend on the medical bed which lit up and began scanning Rhett, the depth of his injuries was displayed on monitors which surrounded the bed. The medical AI also projected a 3D image of Rhett showing the areas of damaged to his body in red, most of him was colored red. Kalteck shook his head.
“AI, do whatever you need to in order to save him. I want him restored to the way he used to be. I need to save him. He is my friend.”
“Working on it. Projection of success for full recovery less than five percent…”
“Don’t give me odds, just repair him.”
“Humans are warriors who never learned how to evolve their bodies for combat. Their bodies are very fragile. Even with his internal nanites I am not sure all of him can be repaired. Do you want me to replace the damaged sections of him with artificial ones? Doing so will increase the probability of saving him.”
“Yes, do whatever you have to. I’ll figure out a way to explain it to him when he’s healed. And yes, I agree with you their bodies are very fragile, but their wills are very strong.”
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Rhett knew he’d been wounded. He remembered and felt the strikes that tore open his beloved ship as if they were tearing him apart. Every hole torn through the Lincoln’s hull felt to him like they were tearing his own body apart. He remembered being wounded, he remembered a flash of severe pain before the nanites cut off his pain receptors so he wouldn’t suffer.
His memory continued playing back in slow motion the energy beam that cut through the Flag Bridge. He remembered it cutting through crew leaving them screaming in pain and bleeding. He saw the ceiling fall; he felt the monitors explode filling the bridge with flying shrapnel which further cut apart his crew and himself. He remembered the smell of the burning equipment and the smell of burnt flesh when most of the crew were burned when their workstations exploded and caught fire. The fire suppression system had failed. If the energy beams didn’t kill his staff, then the explosion of the monitors and the flying shrapnel would.
If any crew survived those, then the poisonous gases and smoke would burn the
ir lungs and kill them. There were so many ways his staff in the Flag Bridge could be and were killed. He remembered his command chair being torn from its foundation and the pain shooting through him as parts of the Flag Bridge flew into his body. He felt his bones breaking when equipment fell on him. He felt himself being thrown out of the command chair, he felt the heat from the growing fires, being burned alive was one of his worst fears. He couldn’t move to help any of his crew still moaning or even drag himself away from the fires. Rhett knew this time he wasn’t going to cheat death.
His lungs were filled with smoke. He knew from the taste in his mouth the smoke was toxic. He knew he was dying, but he wasn’t afraid. He willed his implant to order his nanites to let him go so he could be with his beloved and very missed Liane. He didn’t know his implant while very powerful couldn’t turn off medical nanites.
He felt like he was slipping into a warm dark lake. He knew his body was dying. He again tried to will himself to die. He’d done all he could, while he knew he had lost the battle, he had managed to save over two hundred twenty thousand humans, if a couple of additional colony ships had managed to escape the number could be higher. The number was high enough to ensure the human race would survive. He smiled to himself that he had dealt the enemy a loss they couldn’t recover from. Their Emperor was gone, and their home world and its entire system was gone. He paid them back for the pain and suffering they’d caused through the galaxy. He’d done all he could and lived longer than any other human, it was time for him to meet the Creator of All.
