Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (29 page)

Cade looked at Tag and said, “We’ll do our best, Sir.”

Tag smiled, “That’s all I ask.”

F
ive years passed while the Stars Realm fleet would jump in and fire penetrators at the jump limit to remind the Algeans that they were still aware of their harvesting. The Stars Realm had also grown and prospered during that time. The original 832 members had grown to 856 with the discovery of new races and the 1,400 planets that were originally inhabited had grown to 3,300 with the economic expansion of the Realm. Now that the members no longer feared being attacked by other members, they turned their attention to making life good for their citizens. Danielle played a huge role in choreographing the new expansion and she had become more and more dependent on Rose’s help. The psychic talents of Rose were incredible and she seemed to know everything that was happening and how it all related. She was eleven now and she enjoyed the ruling of the Realm immensely. The Stars Realm loved their Queen but they also adored Princess Gardner. Danielle was sitting in her bedroom in front of the fireplace with Tag and enjoying the moment. She looked up at him and said, “Tag, Cade McAllister has asked me to issue an order to convert more than 200 of our fleet weapon facilities to a new device his team has developed.”

Tag sat up straighter, “He hasn’t said anything to me.”

“I think he plans to do that soon. He knows that I would discuss it with you and that you would call for him to explain. You haven’t been easy to contact since the last fleet action.”

Tag lowered his head, “I didn’t want to stifle his creativity. I sensed that he and his team would need some room to maneuver and my constantly looking over his shoulder would be a distraction.”

“Well, I’ve appreciated your help in governing the Realm but I think he might have what we need to get you back into the fight. As Kosiev said, you should be the point on the Stars Realm spear.”

“I still miss Alexander, Danielle. Dorg is doing a great job, but Alex had so much to offer our efforts.” Tag remained silent for a few moments and then lifted his com and said, “Leila, would you contact Cade McAllister and ask him to meet me here at midday tomorrow. Tell him to bring anyone he thinks might be needed.”

“Yes Your Majesty, I’ll set the meeting up.”

Tag was startled and Danielle snuggled closer and said, “I guess you didn’t know that the First Family voted this morning and declared Rose to be my successor; that vote was 100 percent for her. They also voted you the title of Prince Thomas Gardner, Defender of the Realm; which was also 100 percent. I signed both votes into law so now you are royalty.

Tag was stunned, “Danielle, I don’t have anything that comes close to making me royalty.”

Danielle smiled, “And a medical technician is qualified to be Queen because….”

Tag sighed and said, “OK, I see your point. I’m just not comfortable with the idea.”

Danielle actually laughed and said, “Trust me, it will grow on you. You’re already known and respected for your fighting skills. This is just the Realms way of letting you know how much they appreciate your efforts.”

“Alright, I accept. I’m not surprised about Rose. She is the perfect choice.”

Danielle said, “You know she’s hearing your thoughts right now but the truth be told, at the rate she’s developing, I should step down and let her begin her reign.”

Eleven year old Rose walked in the room and Tag saw how beautiful she was becoming. She was as tall as her mother with her mother’s long blonde hair and her green eyes shone like emeralds on fire. She was wearing a red jump suit that fit tightly and Tag wondered at how quickly the years had flown. It seemed she was just a baby yesterday. Rose said, “Not yet, Mom, the Realm adores me but they love you. Never forget, Love conquers all and love can accomplish things that would never be done without it. The Realm is not yet ready for me.”

Tag and Danielle both looked at Rose feeling their love for her and both were amazed at her maturity at such a young age. “Thank you, Darling, and I’ll keep that in mind. Now come over here and join us by the fire.”

Rose ran over and jumped into Tags arms and snuggled in between her parents. For a moment, the Gardners were at peace.

Tag looked across the conference table at Cade and thought, “He’s aged a lot since our last meeting. His hair was now grey around the edges and there were wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. “I understand you want some of our weapon factories for your use.”

Cade smiled and said, “Yes, I do, Prince Gardner.”

Tag sighed heavily and decided that he was just going to have to get used to his title. “Alright, what do you want to make?”

Cade had brought Anita Lea in with him and she pressed a button on her portable console and a picture of a strange looking ship appeared on the room’s display. “What is that?” Tag asked.

“It’s a new penetrator,” Cade said.

Tag stood up and walked over to the display, looked closely, “Are these power cells on its surface?”

“Yes, the entire surface is covered in the power cells that used to be on our destroyer class vessels.”

Tag raised his eyebrows, “Does it carry a reactor?”

“No it doesn’t.” Cade said. “The power cells are charged by taking them close to the surface of a star and once maximum storage has been achieved, it will have all the power it will need for its function.”

Tag sat back, “I’ll listen from this point on without interrupting you; why don’t you tell me all about it.”

Cade looked at Anita and she started by saying, “The penetrator is 140 feet long and thirty feet wide. Fifteen power cells will provide its acceleration which will approach ½ the speed of light in less than fifty seconds. If you remember Admiral Kosievs’ attack on the frequency ships which cost him his life, he was moving too fast for any of the Plant missiles or ships to hit him from the sides. This penetrator will be moving more than three times faster than the Moscow was able to achieve. It will also be programmed to avoid any missile in its path and target only Plant vessels. The Coronado Screen around it will shrug off any beam fired at it for more than three minutes just like our old destroyers could. It’s the screen that makes this new weapon truly a penetrator. Once it locks on its target, it will accelerate to full speed and the entire screen will be focused in front of its warhead just before it impacts the screens of a Plant ship. The Plants could put ten screens around their ships and this penetrator will punch through. Once it makes contact with the mass of the ship, all of its Coronado power cells will completely release their stored energy.”

Cade looked Tag in the eye, “The resulting explosion will disintegrate everything in a five mile circle. We have also programmed them to self destruct if they miss their target and get close to running out of power. That way the Plants will not get a sample of a power cell.”

Tag was beginning to get excited, “What is their range?”

“Only 1,200 miles,” Anita answered.

Cade could see the disappointment in Tags face and quickly said, “This penetrator is not designed to be launched from the jump limit; this penetrator is designed for ship to ship action.” Anita then pressed her console again and a different penetrator appeared on the screen. Cade pointed at the display and said, “This is the long range penetrator.”

Tag noticed that the two were close to the same size but that the second one had a bulge in the center. He looked at Cade and said, “What’s the difference other than the bulge?”

Cade leaned back and said, “I was troubled when we discovered that if the Plants learned about our null star drives that they would become unstoppable so I have been doing some experimenting with the new drive and this is what I’ve learned. Remember that the outer drive that has no frequency that takes an object into null space is totally stripped off the object and it’s the second screen frequency that the object uses to push it into normal space. We tried to read a star track of numerous objects that used the null drive and we discovered that the only thing that would be read is the coordinates of where it came out in normal space; the null frequency will not follow it into normal space. However, the reverse is not true. If you use the null screen to jump away, the null frequency will remain behind to be tracked thus posing a risk that the Plants would then learn the frequency of null space.”

Tag immediately understood, “We can jump in system but we can’t jump out.”

“Exactly,” Anita said. “The bulge you see on this second penetrator produces the two screens so it can be jumped into null space and then to any coordinates programmed into its software where it will then perform much like the first one you saw.”

Tag’s mind saw almost endless uses for the new weapons. “This could be what ends this war.”

Cade said, “It could certainly make a huge impact the first time they’re used. There is one other thing that I think you’ll find interesting.” Tag raised his eyebrows and Cade said, “We have developed a mechanism that will read the coordinates of any Algean ship that is broadcasting that dampening frequency, download it to the type two penetrator, and it will then jump in next to the broadcasting ship and target it for impact. It doesn’t matter where they are in the system, the penetrators will find them, which means that once they are destroyed, you can jump away using the normal star drive systems.”

“How many of these penetrators can a Megaship hold?”

“Unfortunately, they are 140 feet long which means that the launching ports are big. A Megaship can only carry fifty of them. To carry more would break up the ships surface such that the screen would have holes in it.”

Tag thought quickly, “We now have 100,000 Megaships so that means that the fleet can carry five million of these into combat. If, as you say, each one of them hits, then we can knock down the size of the Plants fleet significantly. “How long is it until you can have enough manufactured to carry out a major fleet action?”

Cade looked at Anita and said, “If our Queen will give me the 200 manufacturing facilities, then we should be ready in a year with the short range penetrator.”

Tag said, “The Plants are close to completing the harvesting of the first planet. I suspect that they will finish within 7 months. What if I gave you eight hundred facilities, then how long?”

“Sten’s facilities are huge. If you include those then we could be ready in five to six months. The bulk of the time will be spent building the new fabricating machines; once those are done we will be able to produce more than 300,000 a month.”

Tag was energized. This is what he had been waiting for five years. “Cade, begin making your plans; the facilities will be yours beginning two days from now.”

Cade and Anita smiled and said, “Thank you Your Majesty.”

Tag sighed again and then sent a thought to Danielle telling her what he needed. “Please let us be ready in time,” he thought.

Suddenly Cade ran back in and said quickly, “A Plant Scout has just entered the Dremels system and has broadcast its location before we could destroy it.”

Tag looked at Cade and said, “We have to have the new penetrators ready before the Plants complete harvesting activities. I’m certain that the Dremel will be the first thing they will address after they’re through. We will make this a Realm emergency project, Cade, so don’t let us down.”

Cade bowed and ran from the room. Tag’s display lit up and Admiral Dorg was on the screen. Tag immediately said, “Cade just informed me about the scout. I need you and your command team to come here to meet with me about our plans to handle this issue. Plan to be here in eight drags.”

Dorg nodded and said, “Yes Your Majesty.”

Tag said, “Not you too.”

Dorg actually laughed, “Oh yes, me too. Besides, we’ve been idle too long; it’s time to get back into some real action.”

Tag looked at Dorg and said, “You miss it, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do. Besides, there are some human colonists to whom I owe a blood debt and a close friend that should still be here that calls for us to act.”

Tag smiled and said, “Wait until you see the new toys we have to play with. I think our playmates will not like them at all.”

“I look forward to seeing you in eight drags.”

Rose was sitting in her room listening to her father start making plans for a major assault against the plants. She stood with a frown on her face and appeared to be concentrating. She got up and went to the map room at Castle Gardner and started looking at the wall maps that showed all of the known universe and the millions of galaxies that had been discovered. She sat and thought for a long time neither moving nor showing any expression. Finally she gave a heavy sigh and looked up at the map that had the Milky Way on it. Suddenly, all of the galaxies around the Milky Way started changing positions relative to each other and then came to a stop. Rose looked at the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. “I hope I’m wrong but I have to make sure.” She thought. “Please, let me be wrong.” She remained in the map room for most of the day for the next four months.

The Fleet Leader sat in his command chair on board the Algean Fleets command vessel pondering the soon to be completed harvesting of the planet that had taken six cycles to complete. There was only two thirds of a cycle left until harvesting operations were totally over and he was curious about why the Strangers had not interfered on any massive scale. The previous five cycles had only seen minor appearances by the strangers and it just didn’t sit right with him. Why were they waiting to attack? Had they just given up? They had discovered a way to get around their frequency ships, he had a recording of that ship jumping into the system, but then they had effectively just disappeared. It was a huge waste of resources to keep the three whole fleets in this system but they could not afford to lose the harvest. Something was going to happen; he could just feel it, even though he had no proof, and if the Strangers were consistent with their past actions, it was going to be dramatic. There was still the other planet to harvest and the scouts had found three more during the previous five years waiting for attention. One disturbing discovery was of an advanced technological world surrounded by those small rocks that had destroyed so many of their ships in the early conflicts with the strangers. The Elders think that the system might be the Strangers home system. Before any other harvesting was begun, that system was going to be visited, unless the Strangers came here first. The Fleet Leader was not sure which scenario he preferred. He felt certain of one thing; the next contact was going to be brutal. He hoped he was wrong, but somehow he knew he wasn’t.”