Annihilation: Love Conquers All (7 page)

When the security team arrived at the scene of the attack, they looked at the carnage and wondered what had just happened. The bodies had fallen in haphazard fashion and blood was everywhere. John Sinclair, an enforcement committee senior inspector, looked at the bodies and then made a decision. Esa Connor, who was the department head of the North American enforcement committee, received a call on his com and said, “What is it, John?”

“Sir, I’m at a crime scene where four people have just been killed. The killer has escaped without being apprehended and I’m having difficulty determining exactly what happened here.”

“Four people killed,” Esa thought. Then he punched a button on his com and said, “Julie, send me John’s coordinates. I’m going to the scene,”

John looked at the dead bodies and told his team to expect Department Head Connor to arrive shortly. “I don’t remember the last time we’ve had more than two killings,” John thought. “I can use some help.”

A
dmiral Dorg, supreme commander of the Cainth military forces, entered his office, and everyone immediately came to attention. He looked around his command center for a moment and then said, “Rest; continue what you were doing.” He observed his staff going back to their consoles and noticed that their uniforms were perfect and that they were nervous in his presence. “That’s a good thing,” he decided. He stood watching his staff for a few more moments with his top arms crossed on his chest and his lower pair of arms behind his back. He looked out the window and noticed the cold Cainth winter howling outside. He actually enjoyed wintertime and could watch the blue ice shards blowing in the eighty-trigs-per-hour wind for drags. The tall, gray, leafless stone tree outside the window had so many ice shards sticking in its trunk and branches that they were sticking to each other; it was the ice shards that would give the gray tree the moisture it would need for the rest of the cycle. The shards couldn’t penetrate to the core of the tree because it was harder than most modern alloys. Anyone going outside into those conditions was required to wear armor unless they wanted to be cut to shreds by the blowing ice. The stone trees just rocked slowly in the howling wind and absorbed the ice into their bark. Admiral Dorg looked around his command center again and was pleased by the efficiency of his staff. He stepped into his private office, motioning for his adjutant to join him. He sat down and asked, “Tresk, do you have the plan set up?”

“Yes, Admiral,” Tresk said. “I’m in communication with the Glod commander and he’s going to star drive as soon as he receives the coordinates.” Tresk then sent the feed of the Glod ship to Dorg’s display.

“Is our ship in position?”

“Yes sir. It’s been there for three rotations, powered down except for environmental systems and passive sensors. It should be undetectable.”

“When is the human ship expected?”

“We expect it within the next rotation.”

“Did you make sure the Glod understand that whatever the Earth ship says when challenged that they will still attack?”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, sir. It’s the Glods’ nature to shoot first and then ask questions.”

“Even so, I want the Earth ship destroyed so we can see how far they’ve come in weapon development. I want them to have to use all of their weapons and defenses.”

It had been a hundred years since the Cainth admiral had destroyed the Earth cruiser. Before dying, the Earth ship had destroyed two Cainth destroyers and badly damaged a cruiser and a battleship. Dorg’s grandfather was one of those killed on the damaged cruiser during that battle. His grandfather was a high noble and was third in line for the leadership of his clan. His father, who was a young cub when Dorg’s grandfather died, had never forgotten or forgiven this new civilization for his death, and he had raised his sons to carry that hatred.

Dorg had worked his way up through the ranks until sixty rotations ago he became the overall commander of the Cainth armed services. He consolidated his position by promoting those he knew he could trust and established closer connections with the Glod Union. One of the first things he planned to do was to determine the capabilities of an Earth warship. He also knew that he couldn’t get his hands dirty because of political pressure from the rest of the Alliance, which thought the Cainth were overly paranoid about Earth, a once-peaceful civilization. He also knew the clan leaders would veto the plan if he told them. He made sure he could trust the ones who knew of the plan and he didn’t let anyone else know.

Dorg stood rocking back and forth on his legs while looking at the wall screen that showed the huge Glod cruiser. He admired the cruiser’s numerous weapons and wished his own ships were as powerful. It was 2,300 feet long and bristled with weapon ports. He knew that the Glod cruiser’s screens were stronger than his dreadnoughts and they were also faster. Then he thought about the so-called peaceful humans. “Peaceful my grump,” he thought. That ship had been the focus of two hundred warships and had not been easily destroyed. As a young officer, he replayed the recording of the attack and marveled at how the human ship had maneuvered to avoid concentrated fire. Now a hundred years had gone by and he knew that the humans had not been dormant in developing better weapons. “Of course we learned from that battle too and our ships are better than they were. But are we better than our adversary?” he wondered. He had to know. He decided to use a modern warship to test the human ship to determine how the humans would measure up to modern technology.

So he enlisted the aid of the Glod to make that determination. It really wasn’t hard to get their help. The Glod were not part of the original invasion two hundred years ago because their planet was so far away, but they would have gladly taken part if asked. Among the Alliance members, the Glod were, like the Cainth, very warlike and took great pride in being feared. The only thing that kept them in line was the knowledge that the other 820 members of the Alliance would combine against them if they tried to exercise their warlike behaviors against other members. They had one of the largest fleets in the Alliance, and their ships were considered the best technologically. Dorg knew that his fleet could not match theirs. The Glod ships were larger and faster and had stronger screens and armaments. Their weapons were the best in the Alliance. When Dorg approached one of the Glod’s ambassadors and suggested the importance of finding out the capabilities of Earth’s warships, he had a very receptive audience. Dorg found himself to be physically quite a contrast when he was sitting across from the huge Glod. Dorg was tall for his race at five feet four, but the Glod ambassador stood seven feet six and weighed more than five hundred pounds of hard muscle. His long orange hair hung in a braid down his back and his eyes were vertical slits with green pupils in a light red face. Glods were bipeds and their bodies were hugely muscled. They each had a yellow ridge that ran along the edge of their hairline from ear to ear, and when it turned orange it warned of impending rage. Dorg knew he was no match for a Glod warrior; their history was replete with constant combat between their nations. They were also recognized as the fiercest drop troops of all the Alliance races. They were huge but also quick. When the Glods were armed with their traditional four-foot swords, which they handled almost faster than the eye could follow, most races gave a wide berth to avoid doing anything that might lead to a duel. The thing that brought the Cainth and the Glod together was their temperament. They respected each other for their warrior culture and the aggressive mentality of their races. A Glod would win a hand-to-hand fight but would not come away without injury when facing a Cainth warrior, armed with the three short swords and throwing knives that they deftly used with all four arms. The Cainth had evolved to be able to use all four arms independently. They were once tree dwellers and their arms made climbing and life in trees easy. One pair of arms would hold onto the tree even when they slept, while the other pair would hold their tools. They were deadly in hand-to-hand combat because of their deft use of their four weapons.

Dorg looked at the Glod and said, “I appreciate your willingness to help me with this project, Ambassador.”

The huge Glod waved his hand and said, “I’m more than happy to do it. We are a warrior culture, and if we don’t find someone else to practice our skills on then we end up fighting each other. The Alliance prevents us from really practicing our fighting skills, so we look for any opportunity to use them. I think that we are a lot like your own race in this.”

“You’re right.”

“How big a ship would you need?” the ambassador asked.

“I think a heavy cruiser should be sufficient,” Dorg responded.

“I’ve got just the ship for what you’re planning. I’ll give you the commander’s link and you can set it up directly with him. I’ll let him know that I’ve approved the action.”

“Thank you. It’s important that we not be tied to the event,” Dorg said.

“Don’t worry about that; our ships are always having run-ins with other vessels, and this should be treated as just another minor skirmish to scream about. Do you want the Earth ship destroyed or just damaged?”

“If it can be destroyed then there will be less evidence to tie us or you to the attack.”

“How big is the ship you’re planning to attack?”

“It’s a destroyer class.”

“You probably don’t need a heavy cruiser. That’s a little overkill, don’t you think?”

“I don’t want to run any risks. I’ll show you the recording of their ship from a hundred years ago. The heavy cruiser will be fine.”

“Do you want our recording of the attack after it’s over?”

“No. We’ll have an unpowered ship present to record it ourselves.”

The ambassador then gave Dorg the link to the Glod commander’s com.

That conversation had been twenty rotations ago. The Glod ship had arrived on station and was waiting to be told when the Earth ship arrived. The Cainth Navy had determined that an Earth destroyer would pass through the sector planned for the attack every ten rotations. It was due to arrive today or tomorrow. Dorg thought, “It should be a very interesting eighteen drags. It shouldn’t take a full rotation.”

The Directorate Destroyer Moscow came out of the silver-blue flash of its star drive breaking into normal space and began its three-million-mile patrol. The 250-foot-long Directorate ship moved smoothly through space with its hull glowing bright white from its clear armor coating and the discharge of its Coronado power cells. Most of the thirty-five crew members were asleep. Captain Alexander Kosiev slouched in his command chair and watched the sensor screens showing the space they were traveling through. He would often glance through the viewport to see more than a billion stars, some of which were billions of light-years distant, yet it was stark and lifeless where he was traveling, and the nearest star was four parsecs away. This patrol was mind-numbingly boring and there really wasn’t much to do. His ship would jump half a light-year and read its sensors while it cruised for three million miles, then jump another half light-year. This process repeated itself throughout the entire patrol, and so far the Moscow had never found anything that warranted any attention, much less action. Captain Kosiev’s assigned duty was to patrol the twenty-light-year limit that bordered the Cainth Empire between Earth Base six and seven and make sure no one crossed it from either direction. So far no one had ever come close. Still, they couldn’t take any chances. He glanced over at the electronics screen and it remained blank. The sheer emptiness of space where the Moscow was traveling made Kosiev wish he could see his home again. He took the bag of popcorn he had asked his quartermaster to bring to the bridge, opened it, and then took a few kernels and started munching on them. “It’s a wonder that I don’t weigh four hundred pounds with all the popcorn I eat,” he thought. The lights were low on the small bridge, and the various control boards that lined the walls provided most of the low-level light. The lights were almost like the stars that could be seen through the viewport. The sheer immensity of the universe he could see outside his ship humbled him; it made him feel small. The deep blackness of space made those distant stars shine like brilliant diamonds, and Kosiev recognized one of them and knew that humans were still in caves when the light of that star had left to arrive at his current location. “Someday I’m going to visit that star,” he thought.

He would often discuss with Lieutenant Mikado, his sensor officer, the places he would travel were it not for the twenty-light-year limit the Alliance had imposed. “Sir, I just don’t understand how Adam Douglas discovered the principles of the star drive,” Mikado said. “Our technology was so primitive at that time and you have to admit that being able to jump around the universe with no loss of time was a major discovery.”

Kosiev liked passing the long hours with this type of discussion; it helped keep the bridge crew alert. He chewed a few more kernels and said, “It really wasn’t a quantum leap in genius. He developed an instrument to measure the resonance of space around him. It was then a certainty that he would uncover the fact that no spot in the universe has the same resonance on the frequency reader he was using. He never got the same reading anywhere he went. Once he developed it so that he could measure the resonance and vibration of stars, then the hard part was over.”