Annihilation: The Power of a Queen (26 page)

Danielle looked at Tgon-Gee and then made a decision, she walked over and placed her hand on Dgzh’s shoulder and said, “The war is coming. We have only delayed it. You will start it yourself and more than 75% of the Alliance’s total population will be killed. We estimate more than a trillion will die quickly and most of the survivors will die of starvation because of the dependency that has developed between your planets. Sten’s planet’s sole function is government. As there is little or no agriculture, his world will be the first to resort to savagery to feed itself. Your world will be attacked for its food supplies, your population will be killed and your planet taken.”

Dgzh was stunned. He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing but as she talked he recalled all the hate that members of the Alliance had toward one another that had been building over the cycles. He listened to world after world threaten each other in the State Leaders office but were prevented from venting their anger by threats of Alliance intervention. The bullying of the stronger members and of the Alliance itself was the nature of being in the Alliance; he knew she was right. His planet was one of the few worlds that was predominantly agricultural and had a limited fleet. If the Alliance weakened, many would take the opportunity to seek vengeance against past wrongs and would take his world for its agricultural value. He felt an overwhelming sadness grip him and then said, “Will you let me know if any other future is seen?”

Danielle could feel his pain and felt badly for Dgzh. “I will headman. Peace to you and your people,” she paused, “I know your race is not up to defending itself if the war starts but we will pray for you.”

Tgon-Gee escorted him back to the shuttle and saw the depression that had gripped the headman. The Crown Prince felt a profound sadness for Dgzh’s future. He remembered how he felt fear before he had joined the Cainth and Humans. Just before Dgzh boarded his shuttle Tgon-Gee said, “Headman, when the war starts, I will have six of my ships go to your home world and try to protect it. Maybe your people can be saved. We will not just stand by and let your world die.”

Dgzh smiled at the huge Glod and felt almost a kinship to him. The Glod stuck his hand out and Dgzh took it and shook hands with the Crown Prince. Just as he started to board the shuttle the Glod’s com beeped and Danielle said excitedly, “What did you just say to the Headman?”

Dgzh and Tgon-Gee both looked confused. Tgon-Gee said, “I promised him to send six of my ships to his world when the war broke out to try and save his people.”

Danielle was laughing out loud, “New futures, new futures, there are hundreds of new futures and the two of you caused them with your agreement. It’s possible to save the worlds of the Alliance. Come back Headman and let’s explore the possibilities.”

Tgon-Gee and Dgzh looked at each other almost in shock and then they both smiled. “You heard the Queen,” he said. “Let’s go save some worlds.”

Dgzh said, “This time I bow.”

T
he Safety Prime Council was meeting over their com network. The leader, Mikne was repeating what the state Leader had told him and he replayed all the video taken of the prior Human battles. The last video he presented was of the 300 new battleships that had jumped in to the Alliance Central Government Planet. They all watched the ships appear around the planet then disappear as they jumped. This caused immediate discussion between the council members. Most refused to believe that it could have possibly happened. Science has proven that close proximity to stars prevented Star Drives from working.

Mikne interrupted the meeting by saying, “Enough! The ships jumped in next to the planet. We don’t know how they can do it but they can. We don’t understand how they put a screen around their planet, but they did. We don’t understand how their ships are so much faster than ours, but they are. I can go on and on but the reality is that we have now run into a race that is technologically superior in all categories. The State Leader resigned and quite frankly I was in the middle of ordering his execution when what he said broke thru my consciousness. I delayed the order and starting taking a good look at the battles we’ve had with these Humans.” Mikne paused and looked at the other nine members and said, “We are so accustomed to overwhelming any opposition that it never occurred to us that there was a possibility that a single race would be strong enough to beat us. After the fact we now know that they had numerical superiority in every battle but hid it to make them look weaker than they are. It is also clear that they had many more ship building facilities than the two on their home planet. I want to show you something.”

Mikne started a video of the Human ship named Washington that was surrounded by seven dreadnaughts. The council watched as the Human ship blew two of them into rubble with its two primary beams then struck the other five with small intense beams that went right thru their screens. There was a short delay and then all five dreadnaughts started blowing apart. “I don’t know what was in those small beams but it is death to any ship it hits. Seven dreadnaughts killed in less than 30 seconds. Now look closely.” The video brought the image of the Washington closer and closer until the hull filled the screen and then moved with a view of a small part of the ships surface filled the screen. “Notice those small circles that cover the ships surface is where their screens and energy weapons appear to emanate. We estimate that they are smaller than 2 degs. Now look at the new battle ship that jumped into the central planet.” The view of the new ships hull was clear. “This new ship is twice the size of the old one and the circles on its hull are easily twenty times larger than the previous ships. If we assume they are twenty times stronger than the old one, then what will it take to kill one of these new ships. Also keep in mind that if it gets into trouble, it can jump to safety where ever they are and jump back in to continue the attack.”

“Mikne, are you saying that we can’t defeat these Humans,” one of the others said.

“I’m beginning to have my doubts. The real question is do we even try. The Humans said they will destroy any fleet that is formed to attack them and punish the ones responsible for sending it. Do any of you volunteer to have the fleet to form in your system?”

There was universal silence until Harauk broke the silence by saying, “I’ll do it. Send the order out to all the members to send their ships to my system. I’ll teach these humans to fear us.”

Mikne looked at Harauik and knew that most of the Alliance heavy handed tactics originated with the Hargons. They were the original world that organized the other nine into what was to become the Alliance. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

Harauik screamed into the com, “Place the orders now! We attack immediately.”

Mikne said, “As you wish.” The other eight members showed their concern but would not cross the old Hargon.

“Tag,” Danielle thought at him.

“Yes Dear.”

“I’ve just received word from Dgzh that a call up for ships had been issued by The Safety Prime Council and that failure to respond will be considered treason. The Hargons system is where they are to report. Dgzh also says that more than 600 Alliance warships have refused to answer the call and are forming up instead at the Central Alliance planet. The number refusing to go is increasing every minute. Our sensors from the drone we left in their system when we jumped in have intercepted messages from numerous Alliance members that indicate that they have chosen not to Attack our race again. The original 600 ships have now grown to more than 4,000. We have had the Saratoga jump in to the Hargon system where 9,000 ships have reported. It appears that the bulk of the ships in the Hargon system are from the fleet that stayed in the outer system during their last attack. The ships at the Central planet have many of those crews we released. It appears they heard our message and understood it. Tag, what are we going to do? This could trigger the war.”

“Let’s see what the Hargon fleet chooses to do first. Once we determine that, we’ll plan our reaction. Relax, Dear. We can do nothing yet, wait and be patient.”

Tag commed Kosiev and said, “Admiral, I need you to form the fleet up and issue one of two plans. We are going to fight the Alliance here and then go to the offending system or we are going to defend the Alliances Central Planet. Either way, immediately after the battle starts I want the fleet to be prepared to implement Kidnap Sixteen.”

Kosiev looked away from his display for a moment and asked a question of the person off screen then turned back and said, “We’ll be ready in 12 hours.”

Tag smiled at Kosiev and said, “Do I smell popcorn?”

Kosiev actually laughed and picked the bag up from the floor beside his chair where he had hidden it from view, “Of course. There’s going to be fighting isn’t there. Honestly, I agree with Admiral Dorg; this stuff is addicting.”

Tag lifted his bag and said, “Someday in the far future this will be known as the popcorn conflict. They will try to say that popcorn drove us mad.”

“Only if we didn’t have any.” They both laughed and Tag cut the connection.

Dgzh had commed Sten and asked him to come down to his former office. Sten came in an hour later and looked at all the people gathered around the wall display. “What’s going on?”

Dgzh pointed to the display and said, “The council has ordered a gathering of ships to attack the Humans.”

Sten sat down heavily. “Are they that crazy? The Humans will destroy them and then come for us.”

“Well, there’s another issue.”

Sten looked at Dgzh and recognized his expression. “Uh, oh, something serious is about to happen isn’t it?”

“Wellll, there are more than 5,000 ships in our system defying the Councils orders and are refusing to attack the Humans again.”

Sten turned dark from the blood leaving his face. His race’s blood was actually white in color which lightened the normal dark color of his skin. His race was from a bright star system and his skin was thick and looked like the hide from an elephant. His eyes were big orbs that had a membrane that filtered out bright lights but magnified light at night. He was humanoid in shape but was hairless and only stood 4 feet tall. Dgzh asked, “Are you going to be alright?”

Sten looked up and said, “Yes, I think so. Why did you call me?”

“The fleet asked me to contact you to see if you would come to communicate with the Council when they come here. They’re pretty certain that they will attack here first.”

“You could do just as good a job as me. They don’t need me.”

“You’re probably right; but they believe in you. You resigned before you would throw away any more ships. They know that and they want you. Plus consider this; if we are attacked first, then your family is in danger. We could use all the help you could give us.”

Sten rubbed his eyes and said, “They didn’t kill me the first time I told them the truth. Maybe they won’t if I tell the truth again. Get Council member Mikne on a channel.”

Sten sat and looked out the window at crowds going about their business at the government center. There were thousands of bureaucrats whose sole job was to administer the Alliance government. He knew that they were in danger if the Hargon council member chose to attack. He was the most bloodthirsty of them all. He also bullied the other members and threatened them if they didn’t do things his way. Mikne was the leader in name only. His display came on and Mikne was looking at him. “You asked to talk with me, Sten?”

“Yes, I have. We have a problem and I’m not sure how you might choose to resolve it.”

“What problem is that?”

“There are more than 5,000 ships here in my system refusing to attack the Humans again. The number is growing as we speak. I am afraid that the civil war the Humans warned us about could be touched off by what’s happening now. Headman Dgzh has spoken with more than four hundred of our members about whether they would feel compelled to attack another member of the Alliance if they were allowed to do so and 374 of them were excited at the prospect of being allowed to do so. If the central government is weakened, our members will destroy our civilization. If the Hargon attacks here, there will be civil war. If he takes his fleet and attacks the Humans, there will be civil war. I am certain the Humans will totally destroy his fleet. We will be so weakened that the civil war will start. Can you not stop the Hargon council member from doing this?”

Mikne stared at Sten and finally leaned back in his chair and took a drink from a goblet on his console. “I was going to have you killed after our last talk. I was already ordering it when I watched the videos of the battles we have fought against the Humans that you sent to my console. I realized that you were telling me something that I had to understand before I made a bad decision. I believe what you are telling me now. Unfortunately, we are trapped by our history. We have always destroyed civilizations that represented a threat to us. Two thousand cycles have made us what we are. It may very well be that the only way to change is to be destroyed and rebuild.”

“But how many billions of civilians will lose their lives in that conflict. Perhaps it’s not necessary to destroy our worlds if people in power decide not to allow it to happen.”

Mikne leaned forward into the display and said, “If any of us went against the Hargons, then we would be accused of treason and attacked. The Hargons have more than 10,000 ships in their confederation. Let me share with you what I’m doing right now. I have called all our warships home and I’m having more than 7,000 agricultural transports bring food stores to my home planet. I also know that there are many members that feel they owe my race destruction. I know you’re right, and so do most of our members. The other eight council members are doing the same thing I am and my sources tell me that hundreds of planets are also planning for the war. I’m afraid that the Safety Prime Council no longer has a function. As of this moment, The Alliance is pretty much over. I would suggest that you do what you can to protect your planet however, with your lack of agriculture, your short term outlook is bleak.”