Annihilation: The Power of a Queen (7 page)

Terl looked at Dorg and said and in a flat voice, “How many more?”

Danielle looked at the Command staff and said, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but about 7,250 more”

Colonel Salerio said, “7437 as of yesterday.”

Every Cainth in the meeting looked like they had been sucker punched. Dorg’s mouth fell open.

“So you see Clan Leader, we also would not allow you to be attacked after our agreements. We have 1,500 ships hidden in the outer system of your home world and 500 for each of your colonies in the event the Alliance launched a fleet against you.”

Terl and Dorg were struck dumb. They looked at the other Clan Leaders and they too were numb. “Why did you only use 350 against us? We never really had a chance against you did we?” Dorg asked.

“Because we have to keep the Alliance in the dark about our strength until we even the odds. They have more than 50,000 warships available for an all out attack. We hope to lower the odds before we reveal our numbers.”

Admiral Dorg took a deep breath, then smiled and said, “Admiral Kosiev, you’re going to have all the fun. May I respectfully request that I be present at the next battle?”

“Certainly if it is approved by our leaders,” Kosiev said.

Terl said, “Be there. We have a long way to catch up. Would it be possible for our ship commanders to also be observers?”

“Clan Leader, we will still use very limited numbers against the forces we face. Your commanders will be in danger as you know, we lost 150 ships.”

“Yes, but the ones that survive will be seasoned which will save more lives in the long run. I also think it will help bring our clans into a fuller understanding of what Clan Brotherhood means in our culture.”

Tag and Danielle looked at Misty and she said’ “Transport your officers here quickly. They’ll be assigned a ship that corresponds to their command in you navy as much as we possibly can. I don’t think we have anything that will correspond to those dreadnaughts of yours, but they will see firsthand what their weapons are capable of doing.”

Tag stood up and said, “So we are agreed that we will resist. We are also agreed that our Clan Brothers will share the battle with us. Finally, as soon as the asteroids are available they will be transported to the Clans Home world and put into operation. Is there any opposition to these decisions? All in favor please stand.” Everyone in all three locations stood and shouted their agreement.

“This meeting is adjourned,” Danielle announced.

Tag looked at Danielle, “How did I do, honey?”

“You were fabulous.”

Later after the conference in Clan Assembly Hall, Terl looked at Dorg and said, “We nearly lost it all when we took on these Humans. We were just lucky to have not been destroyed. Seven thousand ships! It’s like attacking a grneck with a small stick. We should have been eaten alive. We were so incredibly stupid. We came so close to being totally wiped out.”

Dorg said, “Haven’t you been listening. They never kill out of aggression, anger, or vengeance. The same can’t be said for those huge carnivorous grnecks. This is a lesson that we also need to make part of our culture. We’ve been made fearful by the Alliance when we should have embraced new races. We were so proud of being warriors that we attacked anything we touched to demonstrate our toughness instead of using our strength to protect those that needed it. Clan Leader, for the first time in thousands of years we are truly free and we have them to thank for it.” Terl nodded and smiled. Then Dorg said, “There remains one issue to take care of, Clan Leader.”

“What’s that?”

“The self-destruct mechanisms on our ships have to be changed to allow our crews to escape. The prisoners that have come back from their incarceration with the Humans are raising almighty Torg about it and I think they are right.”

“See that it’s done, Admiral. We learn. We grow.”

A
dmiral Kosiev, Tag, and Danielle were sitting in Washington’s briefing room drinking their favorite beverage and eating popcorn. They were staring at a feed of the fleet assembling at the Central Alliance Government planet. They were getting it from a Cainth commercial ship parked just outside the orbit of the fleet. Admiral Dorg had arranged for the ship to be there on the pretense of delivering food that was part of their price for being an Alliance member. The Central Government covered the entire planet with its administration offices so there was very little land set aside for agriculture. “Can you believe that they are making the Cainth ship park there until the fleet leaves?” Kosiev remarked.

“Great! We’ll have early warning of their departure,” Danielle observed. “How have you two decided to handle this conflict?”

“Admiral Dorg says that those massive ships in the center belong to a race called Vgrig,” Kosiev said. “Evidently, the Alliance must really want to teach us a lesson because the Vgrig gain status in their society by how many they kill. The only reason the Glod are feared more is there are more of them. Admiral Dorg also says that we have got to kick the holy groad out of this fleet so the Glod will be suspicious of the Alliance.”

“Danielle, we’re not sure if we should use more ships which would give away that we have more than they suspect. The Problem is that obviously, 140 ships can’t take on four to six thousand. We still don’t want to give away our total but we’re going to have to decide how many to use. What would you guess would be an appropriate number?”

“Six hundred ships,” she answered.

Tag and Kosiev both looked at her with open mouths. “Why that many, Danielle,” Tag asked?

“If we’re successful this time, how many ships will they send next time no matter how many you use; do you know how many they’re sending this time?”

Kosiev looked at his console and said, “It appears between four thousand and five thousand.”

“So if you use only 200 and defeat them, how many will they send next time?”

Kosiev and Tag looked at each other and Kosiev said, “Twelve thousand or more.”

“If you use 200 or 600 they’re going to send 12,000 ships next time,” Danielle said while putting a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

Tag and Kosiev looked at each other again, munched some popcorn and both said at the same time, “900.” They laughed and Tag said, “Let’s break down how we want to deploy our forces. Do you think they might split their fleet and come from different jump points?”

“Probably, they know what happened last time. What might be a good idea is to have half the fleet here at Earth and move out from there to meet them on the way in. If they split their forces, we could let one of them come and try to crack open the clam while we handle the other; I doubt that they can break the shell of our asteroids. After we finish with the first we could surround the second with our other ships and finish it.”

“What about ships sent to record the battle?” Danielle asked.

Kosiev rubbed his temples and said, “I don’t know how we’re going to get them.”

Tag thought for a minute and said, “Let’s try this. We know they will have to be on Earth’s side of the sun; they can’t see anything unless they are. They’ll probably want to keep a safe distance from the battle and also stay outside the jump limit to escape to safety if attacked. What if we spread the other 6,000 ships half way out between the outer system and the star drive limit and wait for them to come to us instead of jumping in on them. The moment they see a star drive breaking normal space they will jump to a new location and keep recording.”

“But how do we get in range of them without them seeing us?” Kosiev asked.

“We’ll know the moment the fleet jumps to our system. Just as they jump we’ll have our ships at the star drive limit with half of them at one edge of the sun’s view and the other half at the other edge. We’ll put them in a pattern of squares with one side being 100,000 miles then just as the Alliance fleet jumps we’ll have both groups accelerate to full speed toward each other and then shut down their power to life support only. The chances are good that the recording ships will fall close to one of the ships in our pattern as we coast toward each other. Our ships will be coasting at thirty thousand miles per second so any recording ship that enters our pattern will only take two seconds for us to power up and attack them. That’s too quick for them to jump.”

“Do you know how many recording ships they’re going to use, Danielle asked?

Tag leaned back and said, “We’ve looked hard at their fleet organization and there are eight ships that have stayed together and have taken no part in the maneuvers. We think that they are the sensor ships.”

Kosiev thought and picked a kernel out of his front teeth and said, “The other benefit is that the only ships the recording ships will see will be the ship that attacks them. They’ll have no idea how we were able to know their location.” He paused and said, “It still might not work because they’ll stay in the outer system.”

“They won’t,” said Danielle. “The Alliance leaders will want to see what caused the destruction of the last fleet and the safety of a few ships is less important to them than getting a good view. All you have to do is ask the Cainth what is the maximum range of the Alliance recording ability and measure that from our fleets’ position. Start your ships coasting along that line at that distance and you should get them. Since it’s going to take time for the Alliance fleet to move from the Star drive limit to our fleet, you have plenty of time to find them.”

Kosiev looked at Danielle for a long moment and then said, “I take it all back when you asked her about the self-destruct mechanisms. Her advice is invaluable. I’ll ask Admiral Dorg now and get that range.”

“Danielle,” Tag asked. “Have the Cainth officers been assigned to their ships?”

“Yes they have. Admiral Dorg is down in weapons now looking at our hornet magazines. Do you think they will jump early?”

“No. The Alliance was angry at the Cainth for violating their instructions so they won’t allow any deviation this time. We still have four days until they come.”

“Do you think we should ask their fleet to leave before the fighting starts?”

“What possessed you to ask that, Danielle?”

“I think that there will be members of the Alliance that will not look kindly on what they are doing to us. If we allow them to come in with no warning and then attack, then we risk losing that goodwill. You can have a ship meet them as they jump in and ask them politely to just leave; you just make sure it’s an unmanned ship.”

“Once again, another good idea I would have missed, Darling. I’ll have the ship stationed in the extreme outer system and have it jump to the Alliance’s jump coordinates once they arrive. It may be at the back of their position if they start moving immediately, but the recording ships should see and hear our broadcast. We’ll also send a feed to our Cainth brothers and see if they can’t distribute it around the Alliance. As I think about it, Oh Hi, Admiral Dorg, I see you’re back from your tour of weapons.”

“Hello Mr. Tag and Mrs. Danielle. Yes, I can see why you kicked our grumps in the last battle. Those hornets are fabulous.”

“Admiral, Danielle and I were thinking, what if we send a feed of the upcoming battle to Clan Assembly; could you arrange for the Glod to also see the feed? You can always say you had a ship you left behind after the last battle powered down and hiding to send you information on anything that we were doing.”

“I’ll try to arrange it. Are you going to destroy that imaginary ship of ours too?”

Danielle and Tag looked at each other and Tag said, “My, you are the clever one. Yes. The last video will be of one of our battleships approaching the Camera. Then we will shut off the feed. We hope you and the Glod will be the only two that will actually see the battle. We have a plan to kill the ships sent to record from the Alliance.”

“Now who’s being clever? Tell me how you’re going to do that. But first let me get some of this wonderful food you call popcorn. If no one else does, I want exclusive trade rights on this product. We’ll all get rich.”

Tag and Danielle laughed and Danielle said, “Let me show you what happens when we put an elixir called butter on it.”

State Leader Sten sat with the Vgrig Warmaster and wanted to run from the room. The Vgrig looked like one of ancient earths gargoyles. He had wings and long fangs with long claws on his ten fingered hands. He was red in color and was over 8 feet tall with a silver plume of feathers on top of his head. Sten felt certain that he would represent a great trophy for this violent warrior but if he attacked me he would lose the opportunity to kill many others during the upcoming occupation of Earth. He had two armed soldiers in the room anyway; you can’t be too safe; this was a very dangerous race. Most members of the Alliance totally voided the Vgrig. “Warmaster, I can’t pronounce your name so if you don’t mind, I’ll address you by your title.”

“That would be fine; I assume I’m here to get my instructions.”

“Yes you are. You are to occupy the planet and take control of these Humans. Use whatever methods you choose. They destroyed one of our fleets and need to have a lesson taught but first I want you to capture one of their warships and send it back to us for study. I want that done before you do anything else.”