Jesse's Starship 3: Joshua's Walls (24 page)

Josh smiled, “Actually, I can accomplish the first two right now.” Silence slammed down on the room. After a few minutes, Tilly said, “Well, if no one else is going to ask, I will. How will you get down to her, Josh?”

Josh smiled and looked at Mike, “I do love your wife.”

Mike chuckled, “Get in line; you’re not alone.”

Josh looked around the room and said, “All of you have seen the recording of me dropping thirty thousand Weg diggers on the Gracken Capital, right?” Everyone nodded. “When a Queen is killed, all the surviving Weg go docile. They are incapable of making decisions, so they just stand around and wait until they live out their life expectancy. I used a telepathic helmet that was tuned to the dead Weg Queen’s thought pattern and I ordered them to come with me to remove a Queen that was attacking my children.”

Alex said, “Your children?”

“That’s how they see each other and others. They understand, to their way of thinking, that all the Warriors that drop with me are my children. The Weg are genetically wired to defend their Queen but…” Josh smiled, “This is the important part, they are also programmed to attack any other Queen and her eggs that intrude on their territory. They can’t stop themselves. When they went underground on Gracken, they dug directly to that new Queen and killed her along with all the eggs she had laid. I can use those Weg to dig a path to the Weg Queens. Once we’re there, we’ll kill her.”

Gremel stared at Josh, “Do you have any idea how many Weg you’ll have to fight your way through to make it to the Queen?”

Josh nodded, “We won’t have to make it through all of them. The entire planet is covered with them but only those close enough to the Queen to dig to her before we arrive will have to be overcome. That number is huge but if we can manage to kill the Queen, the others will stop attacking us.”

“Then what?”

Josh looked over at Prissy and smiled, “We’ll turn those Weg into tools to attack the next Queen.”

Jek shook his head, “How can you be sure they’ll do what you want?”

Josh smiled, “I can hear them now. They’re billions of light years from here and they’re begging me to come and use them like I did the first group.”

“Why?”

“They’re bored to death. They seek anything to relieve what their life has become.”

Tilly said, “And they can find the Queens.”

Josh smiled, “Yes, they can. They can hear her wherever she’s located and will direct us to her.”

Alex said, “And we’re going to send warriors down into the tunnel they dig?”

Joshua nodded, “We’ll be surrounded by walls and Weg coming at us from all sides, but I believe those walls is what will allow us to win this war.”

Tilly looked at Josh and said, “Joshua’s Walls.”

Every human in the room looked at Tilly as she said, “Let us hope they don’t come tumbling down.”

Josh smiled, “This time, the task is to keep the walls standing.”

“How are you going to do this?”

“I’ll need every large Alliance Transport gutted so we can crowd as many Weg as possible inside them.”

“How many transports will you need?”

Josh looked at Hetzel, “Five thousand.”

Hetzel shook his head, “That’s 70% of our commercial fleets.”

Josh shrugged, “I have a billion Weg ready to go to war with us. If by some miracle we manage to kill the Queen quickly, we’ll need triple that number the next time.” Josh looked at Mike, “It doesn’t take as long to build a transport as a Q ship, does it?”

Mike looked at Hetzel and said, “You’ll have your transports.”

Josh said, “Is there any way to change the bottom of them so that they can slide open and just dump every Weg on board to the ground?”

Mike looked at Hetzel, “Is there?”

“It will make them useless for future commercial shipments.”

“I’d rather see a slowdown in our economy than a drop down of a Weg Queen on any of our planets.”

Uginoth was mumbling and Josh said, “What are you thinking?”

The old scientist flinched and said, “Most of the space in those transports go unused on more than ninety percent of their loads. We have hundreds of thousands of medium transports that are used to transport civilians between our worlds. I suspect they would leap at the opportunity to carry commercial cargos along with their passengers.” He held up his calculator, “If my numbers are right, the economy would actually grow with the new shipping companies that would scramble to take up the slack.”

Hetzel shook his head, “I’ll make the modifications. When do you plan to do this?”

“We need weapons that will be effective underground. I also want to arm the Weg we’re going to drop with sliver handguns.”

Alex shook his head, “You’re really putting a lot of trust in these monsters.”

Josh smiled, “I can hear them. They have to have a way to keep the local Weg off them as they dig our channel to the Queen.”

“We don’t have a billion of them.”

“Then give me what you have and I’ll assign those carrying them to be defenders of those digging.”

Prissy shouted, “How are you going to prevent the slivers from hitting our Weg?”

Josh looked at her and was shocked by the question. He hadn’t even considered it. Prissy saw his expression and looked at Jek, “What about a magnet each of them could carry that the slivers would ignore?”

Jek’s head went back and he nodded, “That could do it? That is just a simple programming issue.”

Josh looked at Prissy and mouthed, “Thank you.”

She smiled and sat down.

Mike looked at Jek, “Do you have anything in the works that our Warriors can use to give them a fighting chance?”

Jek looked at the other scientists present and said, “Let us start working on it while the transports are being modified.”

Alex looked at Gremel, “Are you in agreement with this plan?”

Gremel looked at Josh, “My warriors will not be suited for this, will they?”

Josh blew out a breath, “It would take a much bigger tunnel for them to move through.”

Gremel looked at Jek, “Develop something my Warriors can do during this attack.”

Jek looked at Gremel and blinked. After a moment he nodded, “I’ll see what we can come up with.”

Prissy said, “What about the missiles they’ve developed? Won’t they be able to shoot down the transports as they’re dropping to the planet?”

Josh looked at Jek, “Perhaps the Gracken might be made into a good missile defense force.”

Jek’s face brightened and he smiled, “We’ll see what we can do.”

• • •

Josh took a transport and filled it with the magnets Jek programmed to the slivers. He jumped to the Weg Planet and called the Flyer to the surface. More than a hundred thousand others came out of the dirt with him. The Weg thought, “Have you come to use us again?”

“I intend to do just that shortly; however, I’m here to drop a load of small metal discs and I want every one of you to place one of them on you.”

“What are they?”

“They will prevent my children from harming you with their weapons.”

The Weg stared at Josh and Josh said, “We are going to a planet where another mother has attacked my children. I’m going to need you to find her and dig a path to her that my children can use to arrive at her location.”

“How long has the Mother been on the planet?”

“Five years.”

“That is going to be a difficult task.”

“Can it be done?”

“One shaft will fail to reach her. Multiple shafts will have to be used.”

“How many will you need to succeed?”

“Five.”

Josh’s eyes narrowed, “Why five?”

“Four shafts will be dug around the center shaft. The Mother’s Children will have to break through the surrounding shafts to stop the center one from getting to her location.”

“Can you dig five shafts fast enough?”

“If given enough time, all five will reach her. Time is the critical component. It’s doubtful you will be given much time.”

“How long will it take to reach her?”

“Between ten and thirty minutes.”

“Do you think you’ll succeed?”

“Probably not but we look forward to the effort. This sounds very interesting.”

“Is there anything that would help you do it?”

“If there was some way to distract the first layer of diggers, the odds would improve.”

What do you mean by the first layer of diggers?”

“Most of her defenders will be close to the surface waiting for anything to appear.”

“How close to the surface?”

“Seven hundred yards. Below that level, all the Mother’s Children will be on the same level she is located.”

Josh thought about it and said, “What if we blew five holes nine hundred yards deep in the surface for you to start your digging?”

The Weg turned solid orange, “Now that would make a difference. Most of the defenses are closer to the surface. It would give us a head start on them.”

Josh nodded and the Weg said, “You are probably going to have to collapse the pathways behind us as we move forward.”

Josh stared at the Weg, “We’re what?”

“If you don’t, the Queen’s Children will dig in and rush at us from behind.”

“How do we get out?”

“If we kill the Mother, we’ll dig our way out.”

“And if we don’t.” The Weg shrugged. “Let me see if I can find a way to keep them off us.”

“Those in the outer four pathways will probably be overrun. If you don’t collapse the passages, I don’t see how you can stop the numbers that will be running toward you.”

“We’ll work on that. Has everyone heard what I’m planning?”

“We have.”

“Get the discs distributed and I’ll be bringing you weapons that will help you defend yourselves.” The Weg lifted a shoulder and remained silent as Josh boarded the transport and lifted off the planet. He was barely off the ground when the thoughts of joy began growing behind him. The power of the thoughts grew and he saw the Weg were anticipating a good death.

Josh shook his head. What could be done to distract the surface defenses long enough to get his Weg below them? He took a deep breath, blew it out, and activated his communicator. Jek appeared and Josh said, “Is it possible to mount two mobile blasters on the hull of a transport?”

“I honestly don’t know. Why do you ask?”

“Once transports arrive, I’ll need the two blasters to fire their beams into the planet’s surface as deep as possible.”

“How deep?”

“A thousand yards would be good.”

“Do you just need one tunnel?”

“No, my Weg have told me we’re going to have to dig five.”

“FIVE!?!”

“Four passages will surround the central tunnel. The Central tunnel will be protected by the four that surround it and it will be the one to get to the Queen.”

Jek paused, “Are you saying everyone in the other four will die?”

“I’m afraid the Weg believe they will. The only thing that will prevent it is the weapons you develop to protect them.” Josh paused, “One more thing, Jek. If the Queen is in a cavern surrounded by the material used to construct their starships, do we have a weapon strong enough to penetrate it that won’t kill everyone in the passage that fires it?”

“I don’t know. We’re going to have to experiment with some of the Weg Starships we destroyed during their last invasion attempt. I’ll let you know if we come up with anything.”

“Jek, it will do us no good to dig down to her if we can’t break into that chamber.”

“Josh, if it can be done, we’ll find it. I can’t promise anything until we work on it.”

Josh nodded, “I know, Jek. I’m just under a lot of stress and I’m taking it out on you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok. I’m glad you thought about it. I’ll get back to you.”

The display went dark and Josh rubbed his temples. He activated his communicator, “Prissy, I’m coming home tonight.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“I need a break from this tension I’m feeling. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Prissy smiled, “I have just the thing to handle tension.” Prissy looked around and smiled, “I’ll give it to you after the twins go to sleep.”

Josh smiled, “I’ll be there in an hour. I want to see them before you put them to bed.” Prissy smiled and ended the call.

T
wo week passed and Jek contacted Josh, “I’m afraid we’ve not been able to come up with anything that will penetrate the Weg hull material. Anything that does will kill everyone in the passage.”

“There has to be a way, Jek.”

“We’ve not been able to come up with anything and we’ve about run out of options.”

“They cut it to build a starship.” Josh’s eyes flew wide open and he said, “Give me a few minutes, I’ll get back to you. Josh ended the call before Jek could respond and rushed out of his residence and pulled the telepathy helmet out of a locker. He could hear the Weg in the back of his mind but as soon as he put the helmet on, the volume threatened to overwhelm him, “EVERYONE BE SILENT!” He took the helmet off and after a few moments, put it back on. Good, they heard him. I need to know how you manipulate the material you use to build your starships.”

“We don’t manipulate it.” Josh fell back in his chair and after a moment heard, “The engineers are the ones that build the starships.”

“Engineers?”

“Yes.”

“What’s an engineer?”

“They never go above ground. They have a large pincer that is used the cut the hull material.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

There was a pause and the Weg Flyer said, “You know how some of our claws glow?”

“Yes.”

“They have a pincer completely made of the glowing substance. It allows them to cut through it.”

“Please tell me there are engineers among you.”

“Yes, but not that many.”

“How many?”

“Seven hundred thousand.”

“Could they be used in the central passage?”

“Why would you need them?”

“It appears the Quee…I mean, Mother’s, Chamber is completely surrounded by that material.” The Weg was silent and Josh said, “Are the Engineers able to fight?”

“They have never been allowed to participate in defending the Mother.”

“Oh.”

Then Josh heard, “But that doesn’t mean we can’t.”