Saxon Andrew - A rose grows in weeds

On board the Rossville, Admiral Dorg was trying to get the nerve to contact Queen Danielle to tell her about the loss of her husband. His heart was heavy and he was worried about how the Stars Realm would be able to make up for his loss. Suddenly, his communications officer stood up and said, “Admiral, Thomas Gardner is on the com wanting to speak to you.”

Dorg looked at him and was going to bust him into the brig for the hateful joke when he looked at his display and saw Tag. He pushed his com and said, “I saw the recording of Retribution exploding. I thought you were dead. Thank the creator you survived; how did you survive?”

“All in good time Admiral, but first I need you to help me.”

“What do you need done, Your Majesty?

“Admiral, you don’t need to address me that way.”

“Yes I do. I was sitting here sick at the thought of continuing the fight against the Plants without you. You are our fighting forces spiritual leader. You deserve the title and much more.”

Tag looked at Dorg on his display and nodded to him. “Do you remember the cavern we hollowed out on Callisto to hold the prisoners we captured during the Ross conflict?”

Dorg pulled up the description of the cavern on his console and saw it was on a moon circling the largest planet in the Humans home system. “Yes, I know where it is; why do you ask?”

I want you to take one of the interstellar shuttles from your ship and meet me as quick as you can jump to its location. It’s just inside the jump limit so you won’t have to go far inside the system.”

“I’m on my way, sir.”

“Admiral, come alone.”

Dorg looked at Tag and wondered what was going on but nodded, turned off his console, then turned to Tresk and said, “You have total command of the ship until I return. Begin rearming immediately.”

Everyone on the bridge wondered what was going on but Dorg left without telling them. There was a vibrancy that everyone felt on the bridge; Thomas Gardner was alive and the word was going out to the survivors of the battle. The emotions of despair that was taking hold of the fleet vanished with a sudden swell of pride and happiness. They had hurt the Plants and their leader had survived. On all 32,000 ships, they felt that this was a war that they could win. The celebrations began and continued until the Fleet arrived at the Dremels Planet.

The newly promoted Algean Fleet Leader began getting his surviving ships into formation. The Strangers had destroyed two million ships that were in the system when they attacked. When the Fleet Leader’s ship had been destroyed, he had assumed command and ordered all remaining ships to ram the strangers. Up to that point, according to recordings, the strangers had not lost a single ship. The subsequent recording revealed that once the ramming started, they lost close to 20,000. He guessed that the Elders promoted him because of his actions. As the fleet reorganized, he knew that his surviving ships were in bad shape. Ninety percent of the newly designed ships that were in the system had been totally destroyed. He knew that another full fleet of them had been manufactured during the four cycle lull of combat, but those were all of the new ships that were available. The three fleets at the planet were pretty much destroyed. The survivors would have to be integrated into other fleets. He continued to watch the recording of the battle and grimaced as the fully loaded harvesters were totally destroyed. The only bright spot out of this battle was that tremendous stores of food had been harvested and saved before this attack.

He turned his display to slow speed and put a close up of one of the new weapons the Strangers had used against them. He had to slow it down three more times before he could get a good picture of what they looked like; super fast missiles with screens that penetrated the new five screened ships like they were protected by thin leaves. He also watched as the tiny missiles hit the band of power missiles. Those tiny missiles were not screened. He began thinking about how to overcome this new weapon and he kept coming back to screened missiles. He looked at his display on the arm of his chair and decided to ask the Elders about possibly screening their own missiles and extending their range.

The Algean Elders swayed in their groves discussing the new technology of the Strangers. The fourth Eldest said, “We have analyzed the new weapon and found that it is a missile that has its own protective screen. It is also faster than any manufactured object we have ever recorded and is also as powerful as our power missile but doesn’t use the negative matter. It appears to have a range of one point five punds.”

The seventh eldest said, “The new fleet leader asks if there is any possibility of screening our own missiles and extending their range.”

The Eldest listened to their discussions but wondered if his race had finally encountered another race strong enough to defeat them. Millions of cycles ago his race had been almost totally destroyed except for seeds that had survived in space. His species was still paying the price of that virus that had infected their food. Now there was a new strong enemy. The only thing that worked in the last battle was ramming the Strangers ships. Then he had a thought. “Power missiles will no longer be effective against the Strangers. They can be stopped with those small missiles they use. We need to come up with a new plan and I think I have a thought that might help us destroy their home system.” The remaining Elders quit talking among themselves and listened to the Eldest. “How many ships do we have remaining in all our fleets?”

The Tenth Eldest looked at his portable com and said, “Eighteen million.”

“How many of those are scouts?”

“Six million.”

“If we were to remove everything inside a scout ship and install eight engines along with the five screen force fields; how much faster would they be?”

The tenth worked his calculator and said, “Twice as fast as the power missiles and if you used that empty space for additional fuel you would extend the range to 3,000,000 punds instead of one third pund.”

“We will put a negative matter warhead on the front and use the scouts to ram the Strangers,” the Eldest said.

“How many tools would be needed to fly the ship? The Second Eldest asked.

The Fourth Eldest that was responsible for ship building said, “We could tie all controls into one control board. Since it will basically be a one way trip, one tool is all that would be needed to pilot the ship.”

“How long will it take to convert them? The Eldest asked.

“Two cycles,” the Fourth Eldest answered.

“Begin the conversion. We will destroy this home system of the strangers no matter the cost. We will use eleven fleets to make sure we win and every ship is ordered to ram if the opportunity presents itself. Are there any objections?”

“The Eleventh Eldest said, “What if we lose all of our ships in the conflict?”

“We will still have seven fleets for home defense; as long as we destroy the Strangers, it will be worth it; we can always rebuild and our food requirements will be reduced.”

No further objections were given and the plan was agreed to be implemented.

Admiral Dorg came out of null space and commed spaceport authority to identify his ship. He had barely entered normal space when an Earth Megaship jumped in next to him. The Dublin commanded by Captain Bridget O’Donald pulled up beside Dorg and then opened a communication channel.

“Oh, I’m sorry Admiral, I just received word of your arrival; your ship wasn’t listed on arrivals for today. Is there any assistance you need?”

Dorg was impressed with the fast reaction to his jump and made a note to contact Earth prior to any future arrivals. “No, I’m going to visit the prison where my brother was held captive during the Human-Alliance conflict. I’ve heard a lot about it and I want to see it for myself.”