Alien Assassin (13 page)

“Captain Angar, have all our forces coordinate with my location. We will attempt to penetrate their shield by concentrating our strength on their weakest point.” He then turned to Captain Delmin. “From the strength of the wells, determine where the smallest attacking ship is and plot its location.”

Riyad stared at the screen for several seconds, with nothing happening. Then turning to his captain: “What’s the delay? We don’t have all day!”

Flustered, Captain Delmin looked up from his console. “Any weaknesses are minimal. These ships all appear to be mostly heavy cruisers, not the normal contingent of the Fringe fleet.

Damn
, thought Riyad.
The fucking Juireans seem to be serious this time
. Scanning the closing targets himself on the screen, Riyad spotted a slightly wider gap between the contacts coming out a sector that would be fifty minutes on a clock. He pointed at the sector. “There! Set your course for between these two targets,” he commanded. “Angar, have Jolaa and Hasszk lead the force in their ships. They have the most firepower—”

“General!” Delmin yelled. “I have contacts departing the surface and heading to engage the Juireans!”

He was right. On the screen were several lines emanating from a point on the surface, a couple of dozen of them at least. They appeared to be coming out of the southwestern section of the planet, and their gravity signatures were massive. These were fast and powerful ships. But whose were they?

Riyad’s heart skipped a beat.
KLIN! They’re Klin. And right here on Dimloe.
And they had been right under his nose all along!

Thinking as quickly as he could, Riyad tried to put this new development into perspective. He couldn’t allow the Juireans to defeat the Klin, at least not until he could glean whatever information regarding Earth’s location as he could from them. In fact, helping the Klin might actually ingratiate him into their favor…

Turning to the large screen and Angar’s image, Riyad spoke: “Change of plans. We’re going to
join
this battle and assist the contacts leaving the surface.”

He could see the shock on Angar’s face. “We…who?” he stammered.

“Just get our ships off-planet,” Riyad told him. “I’ll coordinate from here.” Angar nervously nodded and cut the link.

Fleet Commander Siegor was surprised to see the two dozen ships bolt into space and form up to confront his vastly superior force. He had at his command some of the most-modern and powerful ships of The Expansion, and manned by mostly-Juirean crews. Believing now that the attackers intended to engage his force, Siegor began to bark orders to concentrate his forces in a region of space forming a corridor between the two moons of Dimloe. The force from the surface appeared to be heading in that direction, which would actually make it easier for his fleet to contain them.

A junior Guard tapped a section of the screen to get his commander’s attention. Another grouping of gravity signatures had just begun to rise from planet. These signatures were much smaller, although numerous. And these, too, appeared to gathering near the corridor.

Quickly assessing this new wrinkle in his plan, Siegor determined that even this added firepower would be inadequate to defeat his force. So with the utmost confidence, Commander Siegor watched as dozens of attack lines grew longer, and all heading for a central point between the two moons of Dimloe.

With the enemies of The Expansion so few these days, major battles, especially in space, were very rare. And in all his years, this was shaping up to be the largest space battle Siegor could remember in his lifetime. His chest swelled with pride as he reveled in the moment.
This
was what he was bred for! And the fact that the battle was more-than-likely against the mythical Klin, made this moment even more special and unique.

“Charge all weapons,” he commanded. “Prepare for battle.”

David Sidwell watched as the Juirean forces began to consolidate at the entrance to the Minlean Corridor, just as the plan called for. He stood on the bridge of the
Fleet Ship Klamath River
and smiled. He had been training his crews, with the assistance of 2G’s and their Klin advisors, for almost three years now, and finally the moment was here. He was sure all his fellow Humans would perform as expected, and that the coming battle would be a glorious victory for his fellow expatriate Humans.

Of course, he was still surprised at the suddenness of the call to quarters, even though he had suspected something was up for the past several days.

The 2G’s had been spending more time in muted conversation among themselves, which always made David feel a little nervous and uncomfortable. Even a few Klin had dropped by the base and spoken with Kyle Ross, the leader of the 2G’s on Dimloe; they had also greeted David, respecting his position as senior native-born at the base. But their conversations had not provided any warning regarding the impending Juirean attack. It was just the accumulation of tiny things that made David suspect a coming event of some kind.

Earlier that day, the call had finally arrived, and David sounded the alarm that sent his fleet streaking for open space.

As expected, the Juirean fleet consisted mainly of heavy cruisers, as well as a scattering of smaller light cruisers and two huge bolt platforms; the Klin intelligence had been spot on. Through countless simulations, David knew his ships could withstand all except a direct belly-shot from the bolt platforms, and the individual Juirean ships could be easily outmaneuvered to always maintain the strongest possible defensive posture against their weapons.

He glanced out the side viewports and watched as some of the closest ships to his position began to move away, preparing for battle. It would be the last he would see of them visually until the conclusion of the action. From here on out, they would just be blips on the forward tactical screen of his command bridge. Even though he was confident as to the outcome of the battle, he still felt a sadness and apprehension that this could be last he ever saw of many of his fellow Humans aboard those ships…

David Sidwell had been born and raised in Humbolt County in northern California. A rugged outdoorsman from an early age, he had hunted the redwood forests and fished in the nearby rivers, many of which carried such iconic names as the Eel, the Smith and the Klamath. It was out of respect and admiration for his home, that David named his flagship after his beloved Klamath River, a gesture which only reinforced his drive and determination to make sure his homeworld would survive against the evil Juireans. Although he had come to accept the fact that he would probably never again set foot on Earth, he nevertheless felt no less willingness to sacrifice his life to help preserve her.
 

David Sidwell had come to stand on the bridge of his starship much like all the other native Humans in his command. Taken by the mysterious Klin at the young age of nineteen, he had at first resisted the information the Klin and the 2G’s had shown him, information regarding the Juireans and their intentions towards Earth. Beyond the startling fact that there were
real
aliens and
real
galactic empires, why would the all-powerful Juireans want to harm an obscure planet like Earth? Sure, he’d seen plenty of movies about aliens invading a hapless and defenseless Earth for no good reason. But this was not a movie. This was real life.

Yet as the years passed, David began to accept the fact that the Juireans were simply pure evil, and that they really didn’t need a reason for attacking his homeworld.

It had also been revealed to him how unique the Human race was in comparison to the other races in the galaxy, and how the Juireans resented the Humans for their abilities – just as they had resented the Klin several thousand years before. He was convinced that eventually Earth would suffer the same fate as the Klin at the hands of the Juireans. The only way to prevent that from happening was to join the Klin and the 2G’s, and learn to defeat the Juireans before they ever made it to Earth.

Although the number of true native Humans was small, their numbers were augmented by the Second Generation Humans – the 2G’s – who had been born and raised off the Earth. Although most were younger than David – and seemed a little creepy to him – he nevertheless welcomed their help. They knew the Klin technology inside and out, and ran most of the complicated systems aboard his fleet.

Even though their original bloodline had come from people like David, as far as he could tell, none of the 2G’s had ever set foot on Earth. They seemed to display a much stronger bond with the Klin than they did with their fellow Humans, which was understandable. While David felt almost a paternal attachment to the 2G’s, he never got the sense that the familial bond was reciprocal.
 

“Admiral, we have new contacts,” Josh Newberry, David’s tactical officer said calmly from behind him. On the tact screen, David was shown the graphic representation of over 20 streaks of gravity wells rising up from the surface of Dimloe. “It appears as though the pirates are joining the fight,” Newberry said.

David simply raised his eyebrows. Although their firepower was not needed, he was frankly surprised to see the pirates choose sides. Throughout most of their existence, the pirates had essentially operated unmolested by the Juireans. The Fringe was such an inconsequential part of The Expansion – until now – that the Juireans really didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened here. So the pirates really had no beef with the Juireans.

That had all changed a few months back, when their base on K’ly had been attacked. In the intervening months, David had observed, undetected, as the pirates went about setting up a new base on Dimloe.

David was sure the pirates weren’t even aware of the Human’s existence on Dimloe until only moments before. David nodded. The addition of the pirates to the battle would introduce another element into the rigid Juirean battle plan, and every bit of unpredictability would only add to the Juireans confusion. The Juireans were far too-regimented in their thinking to deal effectively with chaotic and every-changing events. That was part of the battle plan David had devised.

And it was all about to start – NOW!

Chapter Eleven

Fleet Commander Siegor watched on the extreme long-range viewer as the first engagement occurred. Three of his cruisers opened fire on two of the Klin disk-shaped ships, yet as the concentrated balls of blue-white electricity struck the hulls, they simply shimmered, and the space around the ships was filled with thousands of flashing stars of light. The Klin ships then opened up with bolts of their own, which struck Siegor’s ships with an awesome fury. His ships held their ground, absorbing the brunt of the attack relatively unscathed. But Siegor also knew that most of their diffusion shields had been overloaded by the intense electric charge of the bolts.

Suddenly, a secondary array of bolts lashed out from the Klin, striking two of his own ships. These new bolts broke through the surface of the hulls and burned gaping holes in the metal skin of his ships. The two injured cruisers began to move away, leaving the battle. Then the two Klin ships concentrated their fire on Siegor’s remaining ship of the three, and in a moment the viewscreen was filled with the intense white light of an explosion.

Siegor was shocked. He had never seen a Juirean ship explode. From behind him, he heard the soft murmurs around the bridge as others reacted to the scene. “Maintain your posts!” he shouted. “Deploy the platforms on opposite sides of the corridor.
Now!
”