Saxon Andrew - Escape to Earth-Living Legends

“Did you kill it?”

“No, killing it would waste him. I believe his fear will do more benefit than just ending its life.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Pat, if you have an enemy by the throat, you should remove it. Especially a species like this one.”

“If this doesn’t work out, I’ll kill the next one.”

Michael pressed a button on his console, “Averel.”

“Yes Sir.”

“I want the recordings of this battle collected and have Fleet Intelligence prepared to deliver a presentation of what happened in my office in the morning. Ask Luke if he’ll lead the presentation.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Do we have an estimate of casualties?”

“We lost a little more than six thousand ships, Sir.”

Michael shook his head, “That many?”

“Sir, we were outnumbered twenty to one. Most of the losses happened at the point of each fleet’s attack. Blowing a path through that many ships proved to be much more difficult than we anticipated. Unfortunately, all of our damaged ships that weren’t able to escape into the barrier were destroyed when the target went up.”

“What about enemy ship losses?”

“Twenty thousand in the fight to break through and another half of a million when the target exploded. The blast killed far more of the Legend’s warships than our ships.”

“I want the Senior Admirals there in the morning to view the presentation.”

“Yes Sir. I’ll notify them now.”

“Where to Michael?”

“Angelo, take me to my quarters. I need some down time.” He thought about Hawaii but knew he should stay near Operations in the event Intelligence needed him. He sighed and shook his head at the loss of freedom with his new position. The waves would have to wait for this to war to end before he could feel the freedom of riding a really large wave.

Rear Admiral Jenkins finished his presentation the next morning and the Admirals gathered in the room were silent. Michael knew they were all thinking about the ramifications of the attack and he decided to use a technique to get them to share what they were thinking. “I want all of you to pair up and discuss with each other what you learned from watching this recording. Be prepared to share your findings with the group. Feel free to have more than three in a group but I want your findings collected as quickly as possible.”

Michael knew the Senior Admirals had no problem expressing their thoughts but many of the new Admirals were less likely to speak out. Getting them to discuss their observations with another officer made it easier to get out what they thought. Having another support your findings removed a lot of their reluctance.

After forty minutes, Michael said, “All of you on the left side of the room, compare what you’ve determined and make a list of the things all of you have in common. I also want a second list of items that no other group listed. The right side of the room will do the same.”

The two groups circled their chairs and though the initial discussion began slowly, it quickly picked up speed as they saw that many of them agreed on most of their findings. Luke looked at Michael, “This is a clever idea. Where did you come up with it?”

“It was a process that was once used on Earth in adult education.”

“That doesn’t answer my question?”

“I looked up everything I could find in our databases on leadership and this process was included in an instructional module produced by an organization that was located in Seattle, Washington before Earth’s destruction. I liked the idea and wondered if it would work with this many flag officers in one meeting. It would take a week for all of them to speak and this will shorten the time needed to see what findings they have in common.”

“Do you want to lead the meeting now?”

“No, just call time and ask them to read out their lists. Have the list put on the main monitor so everyone could see it as they read their lists.”

Luke nodded and started collecting the findings as one group read an item off their list followed by the second group. Michael smiled; this was a good way to insure both members of a group felt their opinions were of equal value. The first twenty findings were on all the group’s lists. He looked out at the assembled admirals and saw Katy staring at him. He kept his expression neutral and continued looking past her but saw her smile. He needed to get out of the meeting before Luke ended it. Having her rush up to talk with him was not something he was interested in.

The list was finally complete and Luke looked at the monitor, “I think I can summarize by saying that we are in agreement that we need to send a larger attack force next time.” He looked out at the assembly and saw most of them nod. “We should also plan for the Legends to leave a major fleet of their newest battleships around the vessel under construction.” He looked around the room and said, “I’ll forward this list to all of the Alliance Fleet Leaders as well as the planetary leadership.”

Michael looked at the secondary list of items that were created only by the original twosomes and were not on another’s list. He said, “One of you said that the findings on this battle will probably not apply to the next attack we have to make. Which of you made that statement?” Talel and Admiral Geeron stood up. Michael smiled. The difference between the Goran and Bird was striking. The Audon was a foot taller than the Goran and its green plumage was beautiful as it changed color as the lights hit it. It was obvious the Audon evolved from a bird-of-prey. Its hooked beak and claws were clear evidence of that, “Why do you feel this way?”

Geeron’s tail went up and he said, “Talel suggested the idea and after a few questions, I found I had to agree with his assessment.”

Michael looked at Talel, “Share with us what you’re thinking.”

Talel nodded and began broadcasting his thoughts, “I remained at the planet after all of our ships left and waited to see what was going to happen. I didn’t see in the recording where the Sentinel went down to the planet and confronted the Elder Legend.”

Michael held up his hand for Talel to wait and he looked at Admiral Jekins, “What about that, Jinks?”

“Sir, I don’t have any information about that happening.”

Michael looked up, “Pat? Do you know about this?”

“I was the one that went down to the planet.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Piper pointed out before we skipped out that all of the defense installations on the continent where the Legends’ Residence was located were destroyed in the blast of the ship. He said there wasn’t anything to prevent me from going down to the planet. I took a look around and saw he was right. So, I went and paid him a visit.”

The Admirals began speaking among themselves and Luke said, “Silence, please.”

The room grew silent and Michael said, “What happened?”

“I confronted the Elder and he nearly died from his panic. He screamed and I shocked him slightly to shut him up.”

“You didn’t kill him?”

“No, it would have been a waste of energy. He was so petrified with fear that I thought allowing him to live might give the others pause before they undertook another attack. I warned him that if any of his species planned to come to my domain without permission, I would come and kill them.”

Michael looked at Luke and saw him shrug. Michael blew out a breath and knew something else must have happened. He turned to Talel, “I guess you saw something that has caused you some concern.”

Talel smiled, “You are very astute, First Commander. I stayed until another Elder contacted the one that Pat shocked and it determined that Pat was right, that particular Elder would never do anything to confront us again. Its fear ruled its emotions. I sensed that it had probably gone insane from the contact with Pat.”