Annihilation: Love Conquers All (18 page)

“What if they try to escape?”

“We will have them boxed in. They will have to flee close to one of our ships to escape. It should be close enough to saturate their defenses and destroy them. Especially since this is a destroyer class vessel.”

“Anything else?” Dorg asked.

“No missiles.”

“Very good! I have a ship powered down again and it should draw the Earth ship in when it passes on patrol. Even if they don’t approach, my ship will transmit the Earth ship’s coordinates and then start a ten-dreg countdown when all four dreadnoughts will jump to their assigned coordinates and begin the attack.”

“I look forward to working with you, Admiral. Maybe we can do this again.”

“Let’s get this done first, commander,” Admiral Dorg said as he signed off.

The Glod commander thought about four dreadnoughts attacking a small destroyer. The warrior in him detested the action as cowardly. A dreadnought is more than a hundred times bigger than a destroyer with forty times more tonnage; it also out guns it more than 800 percent. The commander would obey his orders; however, this was one action he would not brag about to other Glod commanders. He sat in his command chair and waited for the expected transmission.

The Earth destroyer Moscow moved silently though the sector where it had previously been attacked. Commodore Kosiev worried about his small ship. It had been his home for three years and it fit him like a pair of old slippers. He knew every nuance of its systems and knew its capabilities. He also knew that military intelligence was probably right about another attack, and that overwhelming force would be used this time. His patrol schedule had been changed and varied such that knowing exactly when Moscow would pass the sector where the first attack took place was not possible. He knew that in order to trap Moscow, a ship would have to be present to notify the attackers of his arrival. Hopefully, it would be detected before it could transmit; that would at least allow the destroyer to go to general quarters. It had been decided that the destroyer would not have any help, nor would it be allowed to fire upon any ship attacking it. It would have to escape by using its speed. It would not be allowed to reveal its weapons capability.

Moscow’s screen was out six hundred thousand kilometers and tuned to report anything containing metal. Then, just like before, Lieutenant Mikado said, “Sir, we have a return one hundred eighty thousand kilometers off our starboard side.”

“Analysis, Lieutenant?” Kosiev asked.

“High-strength alloys, sir.”

“Sound general quarters, all hands to battle stations; pull the screen in to one thousand meters and bring reactors two, three, and four on line. Ensign, open all channels of communication,” Kosiev commanded.

“Commodore, I have four star drives breaking into normal space close to our position,” Mikado said.

“Show them on our tactical screen, Lieutenant,” Kosiev said. He saw that the trap was well planned. Moscow was at the center of four ships entering normal space in a box formation. She would have to come close to two of them to escape. “Turn toward the ship at ten o’clock, helmsman,” he ordered. The destroyer turned and picked up speed.

“Sir, the four ships are in normal space and they’re all dreadnoughts,” Mikado said with an edge to his voice. “One of them has begun hitting our screen with a beam to prevent our being able to jump away.”

“By the creator, this is taking revenge too far,” Kosiev said. “These ships were all more than three thousand feet long.” He looked at Ensign Kelley and said, “Open all communication channels.”

“To the four dreadnoughts entering Directorate sector delta, this is the Directorate ship Moscow on patrol enforcing Alliance codes. We are not hostile and we will leave immediately. Do you require assistance?”

“No we don’t.”

“May we leave peacefully?”

“No!”

“What are your intentions?”

Suddenly, all four dreadnoughts simultaneously opened fire on the Earth ship with their energy weapons. The beams joined the low-power beam impacting the screen that prevented Moscow from using its star drive to escape, and the screen began to change color. A star drive cannot resonate when being hit by an energy weapon. The destroyer’s screen changed from white to yellow to red. “Screen status, Lieutenant?” Kosiev asked.

Mikado looked at his display and said, “Holding sir, but the four ships are moving closer, boxing us in, and the energy on our screen is going up.”

“How long until screen failure?”

“Less than 120 seconds sir.”

“Sir, all power is going into the screen and we can’t use our star drive.”

“Open communication channels,” Kosiev said. Then he faced his communications screen and said, “Stop your attack. We will not defend ourselves. We are no danger to you.” The attack continued. Suddenly Moscow turned and accelerated toward the gap between two attackers. Both dreadnoughts opened fire with two hundred primary lasers each and the Earth ship exploded.

“That didn’t take long,” the Cainth commander thought. Then he broadcast to the two Glod ships, “Is there anything left to analyze?”

“No. Our sensors show absolutely nothing remains larger that a pebble.”

“This action is over; return to your bases.”

The Glod did not respond but activated their star drives and disappeared. “This was too easy,” the Cainth commander thought. “Set star drive to return to Cainth. Notify the unpowered ship to return to base.” After a moment, both of the huge ships disappeared and the Cainth cruiser powered up its systems and left after the dreadnoughts.

Nothing was left to indicate that a battle had taken place, just empty space.

“Did you get all of that, Mikado?” Kosiev said.

“Yes, sir, we even got their ship-to-ship communications recorded.”

“Have the escorts power up and then leave for star base. We’ll join them momentarily.” The three escort destroyers powered up their systems, then activated their star drives and left.

Kosiev looked out at the space where Moscow had been destroyed. “Turn off the remote control link,” he ordered. Moscow had been controlled during the battle from the bridge of the Earth cruiser Largo. A small hole in the Coronado screen allowed Moscow to receive commands from the controller onboard Largo. Even the communications were electronically sent through the link. There was no one on board the destroyer when it blew up. Largo and its three escorts were spread out along the sector where the attack was expected with all of their systems powered down. Military intelligence surmised that the Cainth could not detect unpowered ships. They learned that from their tactics during the first attack. Moscow had also been remotely detonated by having its entire skin of Coronado cells overloaded at the same time. At the time of the detonation her screens were holding, but it was felt that by destroying the ship quickly it would give false information about its capabilities.

“Lieutenant Mikado, copy all of the recorded information and send it on a secure channel to Directorate military intelligence. I thought the part about how we would not attack them was a nice touch. When our ambassador plays this for the Alliance assembly, things should get real interesting for our Cainth playmates.” Commodore Kosiev looked out where his ship had been destroyed. “I’m going to miss you, old girl,” he thought. “Just like last time, I think you bought us some time. Someone is going to pay for this.” Then he said, “Set the Douglas drive for star base and let’s go home.”

Grand Admiral Dorg stood at attention in front of the fifteen clan leaders that made up the clan’s central chamber. He had entered the huge, towering wooden structure eight drags earlier and had been marched into the central chamber and ordered to wait for the clan leaders. The Central Clan Assembly Hall was built on top of one of Cainth’s mountains and was more than 1,500 feet tall. It was made of wood from the stone trees that grew in the forests, and its wood was actually harder than most modern alloys. It was somewhat dark inside, and the torches used to light it were only barely up to the task. He sat on a bench looking up at the balcony where the clan leaders would arrive and waited for them, wondering what was going on. Once they arrived, he spent one third of a rotation explaining why he felt it necessary to attack an Earth ship. The clan leaders showed him the recording of the attack that the Earth ambassador had taken to the Alliance general assembly. He was stunned. Not only did the recording capture the four huge warships attacking the destroyer, but it also recorded all of the communications that took place during and after the attack. There was no way to pretend that this was an accident.

So he stood at attention and waited for his fate to be determined. “Admiral, do you realize that the Alliance has voted to remove us as the custodians over the humans? Further, no one from our civilization may enter their twenty-light-year limit for five years. Further, reparations also have to be paid to the families of the crew that you killed,” his clan leader said.

Dorg had tried to get them to see the danger represented by the humans, but they were just not listening. Then Terl, the top clan chief, stood up and silence reigned. “Admiral, you are hereby stripped of your rank and are sentenced to five years in prison or until such time as the Alliance ends its restrictions concerning the humans. Consider yourself fortunate that more severe actions are not taken.”

Two guards came up on each side and escorted him out of the room. As he left he shouted back, “You have no idea of the danger they are to our existence.”

After the Admiral was taken away, Terl asked the other members, “Does anyone wish to add anything?”

“I do,” said Krug, the chieftain of Dorg’s clan. “I agree with your punishment because he took these actions without consulting us, but the admiral has made several strong points about how the humans represent danger to our civilization. I also suspect that the only way the humans could have gotten this recording was to set up our ships to embarrass us and cause what happened. There had to be other Earth ships nearby.”

“Why do you think that, Clan Leader?” Terl asked.

“Who recorded this? Certainly not the ship that was destroyed; it didn’t even try to defend itself when we know after the first attack that it was fully capable of doing so. There had to be another ship, or ships, present, and if there was, why didn’t it come to the aid of the ship that was being attacked? I think they were there to record what happened and remove us from having access to them. I suspect that any information we learned from this encounter is worthless. They let us see what they wanted us to see. There’s one other important thing. Now that the former admiral has told us about the first attack, remember the photograph. That small ship destroyed two cruisers with their own missiles. Do we know how many ships they have? Do we know anything about their capabilities? Do you really think the Admiral wrong in his estimates? And one final item, do you think these humans have no ill will toward our race after we have attacked them three times?” Krug sat down and the room was silent.

Terl sat for a dreg, contemplating what Krug had said, and then stood again and said, after careful thought, “The safety of our civilization is our prime responsibility. You raise many unanswered questions here. The admiral was stupid and hasty; however, we may have been hasty in our condemnation and punishment. I think he was actually trying to protect our people from what these humans may be capable.” Then Terl looked at the clan leaders and said, “He already knows more about these humans than anyone we could replace him with. Thank you for your insight, Clan Leader Krug. I recommend we reinstate and place the admiral on probation and assign someone to watch him to make sure he keeps us informed of any future planned actions. He should be more informative after the punishment we just gave him. I would also recommend that since we cannot enter their territory that we get some of our friends in the Alliance to assist us in collecting intelligence about these humans. All in favor of this…” Everyone stood up. “It’s unanimous,” he said. “Let’s see what we can find out.”

I
nspector Connor was on Danielle’s display screen in her living quarters and was asking her questions before she went out with Tag. “Do you really think this is a good idea?”

“Yes sir, I do,” Danielle said. “The interrogations at school turned up nothing. We know that our Superman has to be a student. So either we did not interrogate Superman, or he was able to manipulate the truth field. Before you removed all of the security personnel from the school, didn’t you interrogate every student above the age of twelve?”

“Yes we did. Leave no rock unturned, I say. And you’re right, we came up with nothing. Do you really think that the person we’re looking for could lie in a truth field and not be caught?”

“Logic screams that that’s the only answer. If our Superman has the ability to see cameras’ views, then he must be able to detect different kinds of electronic fields. Is it a huge jump to consider that if he can detect them he might be able to manipulate them?”

“We started measuring for psychic ability after we left, but I don’t know if that’s going to work,” Inspector Connor said. “Do you still think that he’s our best suspect to be Superman?”