Jesse's Starship 3: Joshua's Walls (23 page)

Josh had time to slow down and reflect for the first time in six years. He thought about the Weg and the thoughts he heard when he used the telepathy helmet. They were the most unusual creatures he had ever encountered.

Their thought processes were incredibly complex but also simplistic. They were able to work through killing Queens on different planets but didn’t see a benefit to them for doing it. He chuckled at the Flyer wanting to do it again. He heard the Weg’s thoughts as they exited the transports and it was a pretty good bet all of them wanted to take part in the next mission. Josh sighed. If there ever was another mission. After the third day it dawned on him that his military career was probably over. He missed Prissy and the babies. He hoped she wasn’t worried sick about him. He knew she was not taking this lying down. He closed his eyes and decided that if he had to do it all over again, he would have done the same thing. Once he made that decision, he was at peace with whatever happened to him. He stood up and began doing stretching exercises and strength moves to tire his body to allow him to sleep.

On the seventh day, Prissy appeared at the cell and the guard opened the door and allowed her to enter. Josh jumped up and pulled her close but he sensed something was wrong. He stepped back from Prissy and saw her staring at him. “What’s going on?” Prissy stared at Josh and looked deeply into his eyes. Josh looked out of the cell and saw the guard had a sliver handgun raised and pointed at him. He stepped back from Prissy and shook his head, “I’m still the same person, Prissy.”

Prissy slowly shook her head and then rushed into his arms, “I’ve been so frightened, Josh.”

“For God’s sake why?”

“Jek took a reading on your brainwaves when you returned here and they’re completely different from before you put on that helmet.”

Josh stared at her, “How different?”

“They don’t appear to be human.”

Josh sat down and Prissy sat down beside him. He looked at her and said, “So I’ve been under observation for the last week to see if I’ve changed?” Prissy nodded. Josh lowered his head and thought hard for a minute and then lifted his head and said, “I honestly don’t sense any difference. My memories are intact. My love for you and the babies is actually stronger after being separated from you. My intent to win this war against the Weg has not changed.” Josh looked up at the ceiling, “What exactly are you worried about?”

Prissy looked in Josh’s eyes again and said, “There’s something different, Josh. I just can’t put my finger on it.”

Josh’s eyes narrowed and he closed his eyes. He pushed everything out of his consciousness and then he heard it. He focused on it and then opened his eyes, “I can still hear them, Prissy.”

“Hear what?”

“I can hear the background thoughts of the Weg on that planet where we killed the Queen. I think by using the helmet to communicate with them, I opened a channel in my mind for them to reach me.”

Alex, Mike, and Jek appeared at the cell door and Alex said, “Open the door and leave us.”

The two guards lowered their weapons, unlocked the cell door, and left the room. Alex walked in and stared at Josh, “I’ve been told that you have the brain waves of the Weg.”

Josh shrugged, “Actually, I think you’re detecting their attempt to contact me.”

“What?”

“The Flyer I’ve been communicating with told me that I was communicating on the thought pattern used by the Queen we killed. I think that by using the helmet to communicate with them, I opened a channel for them to contact me. Do you still have the brain scanners going?”

Alex looked at Jek and he nodded. “Give me a moment.” Josh closed his eyes and pushed all thoughts out of his mind. He heard the thought noise in the back of his mind and he thought, “You will stop trying to contact me until I call for your attention!” Josh waited and after a moment, the noise grew dimmer and then vanished. Josh looked up, “What does your scanner indicate now?”

Jek looked at a hand unit he was holding and started shaking his head. Alex watched him and said, “What?”

“His brain waves are back to normal.”

The three looked at Josh and Mike shook his head, “What in six hells has been going on?”

Josh shrugged as Prissy rushed into his arms and threw her arms around his neck. Josh hugged her as she started crying and looked at them, “It appears the Weg on the planet where I picked them up are trying to contact me. It was their pattern you were detecting.”

Jek shook his head, “You’re saying you can hear them here?”

“I have to really focus, but yes, I believe I can.”

“Why did the pattern go away?”

“I told them to stop trying to contact me until I called them.”

Jek looked at Alex and Mike and shook his head, “This is beyond my understanding.”

Josh looked at Alex and he blew out a breath, “We’ve been afraid the Weg have taken over your mind and were in control of you.”

Josh snickered and Mike said, “What do you find funny?”

“Sir, I honestly believe that it is I who is in control of them.”

Mike smiled, “From what happened on the Gracken Capital, there is evidence to support that belief.”

Alex stuck out his hand, “It’s good to have you back, Josh.”

“I’ve never really left, Sir. What’s going on outside these walls while I’ve been on vacation?”

“The Gracken have threatened to come and blast you out of here if we don’t allow you to come to their planet and receive their thanks for what you did.”

“Sir, before I ever go back there, I am going to have to have a gravity compensator. That planet’s gravity makes you feel like you weigh five hundred pounds.”

Jek said, “Actually, it’s four hundred and twenty.”

Josh laughed and Prissy kissed him full on the mouth. Alex looked at Mike and Jek, “I think they need a few moments of privacy.” They walked out and discovered that they needed much longer than a few moments.

T
he conference room was full and Josh wondered why the Gracken had sent five of their Senior Elders to attend. An extra table had been brought in for the Alliance Science Team and he saw that Mike and Tilly were sitting at the center of the front table. Jesse and Elle were also present and most of Sparta’s Senior Military Officers were sitting in chairs along the wall. He looked at his name on the placard in front of him and wondered why he was the only officer sitting at the table. Well, other than Alex; he was sitting next to Mike and Tilly having a discussion. Hetzel was sitting with the Scientists and Engineers and he was having an animated discussion with Jek and Josh knew they were talking about him. They kept glancing at him as they talked. He looked over to the wall and saw Prissy staring at him. She caught his eye and nodded. Easy for her to tell him to relax. She wasn’t at the front table.

Mike ended his conversation with Alex and looked around the room. He stood up and waited until the room grew silent. “We’re here today to determine what our next steps are going to be in our conflict with the Weg. There is information we need to share with everyone and we also need to analyze where we are in our efforts so far.” He looked at the most senior Gracken Elder and said, “Why don’t you get us started?”

Gremel pulled his microphone closer and kept his seat, “There has been a radical change in the Weg’s behavior after General Adams’ units killed the first Queen. They have made a conscious decision to no longer challenge us above ground. We lost two divisions to a new species of Digging Weg that somehow manages to move underground without generating any noise. This renders most of our seismic probes worthless in trying to determine their positions or where the Queens are located.” Gremel paused and said, “We’ve tried to saturate the surface of the planet where we lost our two divisions with seismic probes but it appears as soon as they arrive on the surface, every Weg underground starts making noise while others remove the probes. All we receive is a black return from the surface showing nothing lower than ten feet.”

Mike said, “Are you saying we have absolutely no way of seeing them underground?”

“Unless we develop a more advanced probe…that is exactly the case. We did make one determination before our probes were completely shut down.” Gremel looked at his notes and said, “It appears that the chamber where the Queen is located is being surrounded by the material used to construct their starships.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed, “How will that make a difference?”

Jek stood up and said, “Elder, may I answer that question?” Gremel nodded. “The material they use to construct their starships is almost impossible to penetrate. It takes hundreds of the main blasters on our warships to destroy it and all of you have seen that the ship survives a crash into a planet’s surface traveling faster than five hundred miles an hour.” Jek paused and looked around the room, “The beams we used to create a tunnel for the missile to the Queen’s Chamber will not penetrate that material and we believe all the area around the new Chambers built for the Queens has been surrounded by that material. Even if we knew where the new chambers were located, it’s doubtful we could get to her using the method employed to kill the first Queen.”

Jek paused and looked around the room and saw the stunned expression of the Officers sitting against the wall. Jek looked down and said, “We did discover when the last assault of Weg Starships attacked the Gracken Capital that the difference maker was the Q ships called in. There were more than two thousand Weg Ships that came into normal space and accelerated toward the planet. It was the Q ships that killed the vast majority of those Queens. The fact that only one made it down to the surface was incredible. That one would have failed as well if the Q ships had arrived moments earlier.”

Mike looked at Hetzel and smiled, “You can thank my Lead Councilor for quick thinking. He sent the Q ships immediately.” Mike looked at Jek, “So we now know that the Q ship’s beams will destroy the Weg Starships?”

Jek nodded, “We do. However, it takes a full beam to kill them. I don’t know if the Weg can develop a tougher hull that can withstand a Q ship’s beam but for the moment, they are vulnerable.”

Jesse said, “How many Q ships are needed to defend a planet against that many Weg ships?”

Jek looked at Jesse and shrugged, “Six Q ships can handle two thousand of them, Mr. President. However, if they launch higher numbers, it will require more ships.”

Alex looked at Jek, “Where did those Weg Ships come from? We didn’t detect any launches from the planets we’ve been watching.”

Jek looked at his scientists and turned back to Alex, “We’re of the opinion that they were launched from a Weg planet in a different part of the universe.” Jek saw several of the attendees start talking among themselves and he said, “No, we don’t know where the planet that launched them is located.”

The room grew silent. Mike looked at Alex and then back at Jek, “So all of the planets the Weg have found are in danger of attack?” Jek shook his head and then nodded.

Gremel said, “Removing the Weg here is only part of what must be done. This cancer has metastasized and spread.”

Jek turned to Gremel, “And landing on a Weg infested planet is a now a death sentence. The current Weg strategy is to dig under our Warriors and collapse the ground under them after forcing their carriers into space with their new missiles.”

Alex leaned forward, “Can the Q ships shoot those missiles down?”

Hetzel stood up, “Yes, but…”

“But what?”

“We don’t have enough Q ships to put around all of the planets we know the Weg have targeted in the past with their ships. I’m going to assume that the next attack will have many more ships than those in the last one. I’m pretty certain that only one ship made it through our defenses.”

Mike looked around the table, “We are currently at our peak production of Q ships but it is not high enough that we can produce the number needed to defend every planet.”

Gremel turned and looked at Mike, “Why not?”

Mike shrugged, “The Q ship is the most advanced piece of technological hardware the Alliance has ever produced. The systems are not such that they cannot be massed produced and honestly, they’re pretty much built by hand.”

“What about installing their beams on our battleships?”

Hetzel began talking and Gremel turned to him, “Your ships do not have the shielding to protect your crews from the powerful radiation the Q beams produce. The reactors that power them also require a shield that would require rebuilding your ships to install it. We’ve looked at the issue closely after you sent us the blueprints of your warships and there’s no way they could survive the blast of a single Q beam much less the hundreds fired every second during a Weg Starship drop.”

Gremel looked at Alex, “Is what I hear being said is here is that we’re going to lose this war?”

Mike looked at Gremel and then turned to Josh, “What about it, General? Are we going to lose?”

Josh looked around the room and saw everyone staring at him. He took a deep breath and slowly shook his head. He looked at the Officers along the wall and saw their apprehension and looked back at Gremel, “Elder, the way I see it, we are going to experience high casualties from this moment forward but we can win this war.”

Gremel’s eyes narrowed, “How?”

“It’s like I said the first time I saw a battle between Rumel’s Dvision and the Weg. The only way we can win is to go after the Queen underground.” Everyone in the room stared at Josh like he was insane. Josh stood up and looked around the room, “I think those of us in the Military that would have to do this understand this at some level and know the price that will have to be paid to do it. As I see it, we have to accomplish three things to kill the Weg Queens. First; we have to locate the Queen and go after her before she can be moved.” Josh paused, “Second; we have to find a way to dig our way down to her fast enough to prevent her escape.” Josh paused again and turned to Jek, “And third, we have to have the right weapons to keep the Weg Diggers off us while we’re doing it.”

Gremel snorted, “You’re not asking much. All three of those things are impossible.”