Guardian Stone 1: Stone Genesis (25 page)

"Human, we attack you because of the unpardonable insult you leveled on us 500 years ago when you visited my planet and because my monarch has so commanded."

Hank said, "Not possible."

"What?"

"I said, not possible. My people have only been in space for less than one year. Five hundred years ago we were still throwing spears at each other. No person from my planet has ever been to your planet. But we intend to visit it in a few months to return your people to you. We captured all of your people except for the five who died from the actions of your own people when we boarded that fleet. We have more than 12,000 Gar and we do not want them so we are going to give them back to you. By the way what was this unpardonable insult that has caused you to destroy at least three worlds and its people."

"You said that my people were an evolutionary dead end and for that insult, every human must die."

"Commander Dranz, as I have already told you, my people have never been to your planet and we resent the fact that you blame us for the words of another. If you are a logical being, and I have my doubts, how is what you are now doing not a self-fulfilling prophecy? The fact that you would destroy lives for mere words is not logical? By what right does this person kill for words said centuries ago? Where is your honor? I suggest you think carefully about your answer because we have the means to destroy your entire fleet and your home world with little effort. Since you are clearly a threat to life in this galaxy, you will not be permitted to continue this pogrom."

Dranz replied with some agitation, "It makes no difference. You are human and must die by order of our high ruler. What one of you speaks, binds the rest of your race. The others were merely a means to an end."

"I am surprised because from what I know of your honor code, your action is in conflict. But in any event, your words condemn your race. If you are so intent on killing humans, why am I not now dead? Here I stand before you on your own ship and still I live. What makes you even think that you can kill me. This is comical. I will return again to continue this discussion and maybe to play some more. You will not like my next visit. Goodbye for now Dranz." With that Hank returned to Station 1. "Well, Gambel, you were exactly right about the causation for this conflict. Lets do that again in a few days and see if we can rattle them some more. I kind of enjoyed that. At the very least we now know something of their layout. I could sense the lot of you looking in every nook and cranny. So lets see what we know about this fleet now that the four of you have had a chance to explore. Barana, would you please recap what we learned."

<
The ships of the Gar fleet are not of Gar origin. As nearly as I could tell, they are of Linan origin. However, the only persons on board are Gar. These ships are designed as warships and there are no stasis units on board. The drive structure is similar to that of the Glarin ships and still has the light speed capacitor issue. These can be bumped out of super light as readily as the Glarin vessels but the capacitor recovery time is considerably less. It appears they can reenter FTL in about 3 hours after a massive surge and release. We can also destroy those capacitors rather easily when they have been discharged. It appears their supply of spares is somewhat limited. The weapons are somewhat more powerful but not a real threat. These too run on a storage capacitor system separate from FTL and from life support systems. All we have to do to disable this fleet is to destroy all capacitors except those for life support
.>

<
The ships are six miles long and have a crew of 450, most of them are weapons operators. They also carry about 120 shock troops on each vessel. Each ship has 10 landing craft capable of carrying 20 troops each. Troop armor will withstand just about anything earth can throw at them but will be child's-play against our armored Marines. They carry a large quantity of symbiote missiles and all of these have been neutralized, but they do not know this yet. They carry 4 planet buster warheads that will have to be neutralized. I am considering what might be the best way to accomplish that. One thought is to create a singularity and feed them into it. In the meantime, I have locked each warhead into an inactive phase until we decide what to do with them. The Gar cannot activate them. I have also reprogrammed the self-destruct devices on each ship. I have removed all symbiote information from their databases including all hardcopy records. We know precisely where to place our boarding troops when it comes time to take them. We clearly will have to backtrack them and clean up the mess they have created. The history files tell us where we have to go to accomplish that. The intelligence we have gathered is current through last month because the command ship has updates in its files received by FTL communications. I have planted a bug in that system so that outgoing messages will not be transmitted except to us. They will think the messages have gone out but they will not have been sent. That little ploy will be discovered before too long because the nature of incoming messages will make it apparent that the outgoing messages have not been received. I have also discovered that there three other invasion fleets heading to what appear to be human worlds past Gar. This people has been pretty busy.
>

Hank said, "Wow, I could get real used to fighting a war this way. Good job everyone. We now know what we have to do. I am going to assign Division 4 to remain on station here to keep that Gar fleet under observation. The rest of will return to base and re-outfit with the drive upgrades. Division 5 will be first and when that is installed they will return here to relieve Division 4 so they can go in for the drive upgrade. Feed all this intelligence into Josh so he can start working on an operational plan. How soon do those other fleets reach their targets."

<
The first will be in two years, so we have time to intercept them before they can do further damage.
>

"Looks like we are going to be pretty busy. Ok Barana, pass the order to return home and work on the upgrade. We need to get this Gar business resolved. Also have another 600,000 stasis units installed on the ship we are using to transport the Gar home."

Station 1 in Earth Orbit –

February 4 – C Day 158

Hank said, "Barana would you please post a meeting here for the leaders of Earth for three days hence. Purpose is an update. Also invite emissaries from the various planets we are guarding. Kar is already here for Frote, we will need representatives from Nimtam, Gella, Blint and Janice. Its time to bring home to them the idea, that this is not just an interplanetary issue, it is an interstellar issue. Seeing a Glarin at the table may shake a few trees. That new drive can bring folks in in less than 2 hours so lets go interstellar. Broadcast via ship to ship so they have real time news."

<
Notice is out with instructions. All want to attend. Iran has not been added to the list but their listening posts are active. I have prepared a briefing recording that is suitable for general broadcast. The first is the rescue of the seven Glarin ships. The second is the destruction of the missiles and the intel gathering following Operation Buster. Third is Operation Sweeper. The fourth is your exchange with Dranz. That last should open some eyes.
>

"I agree. Would you see if President Johnson is available for a short chat."

<
He is available and asks if it is ok to meet on station. He also wants to know if it is ok to bring one of his secret service people along. I told him I saw no problem as long as the agent knows his weapon will not work here, nor his communicator. I think the lodge would be a good location. He is ready when you are.
>

"Please ask Sam and Kar to join us. Please tell the President he is welcome to bring along his wife and son if he wishes. Barana would you also put in some light refreshments."

Shortly, they all arrived at the lodge deck. The President introduced his Secret Service Agent Curt Hendricks, who as it turned out had served with Hank in Afghanistan and they knew each other but were out of touch. Hank recognized him instantly and told the President that he had a good man there. Sam and Anne Johnson along with five-year old William Johnson went for a walk outside the lodge. Hank introduced Kar as an emissary from Frote and the President said, "Ah, royalty and from a distant planet."

Hank said with a grin, "We did not tell him, and if you ask him not to, he will keep your secret."

Kar with a puzzled look said, "But, how did you know?"

"Sorry son, I did not know you were keeping it a secret but there are body language nuances that speak to me like reading a book and I saw royalty. Some others will also see it and wonder why you are incognito, but most people will not notice. I can give you a few hints that might be helpful if you wish to remain unidentified. Not to worry though, I will not spill the beans."

Hank said, "I thought you might enjoy a break from the routine and an informal update as to what has been going on. This will be a bit more detailed than what everyone else will see in three days. Some of this I would ask that you keep under your hat. For example, the 'discussion' I had with Commander Dranz was unusual because at the time I was physically 1,200 light years away from him. We will let people wonder how I was not harmed but we are clearly not going to include that as part of the explanation. Some will connect some of the dots but I am not sure many will pursue it." Hank then proceeded to brief the president on each of the operations that had been conducted. He showed the unedited recordings that would be edited and used at the leaders meeting and pointed out those items that would be omitted from the general meeting and broadcast.

"The public already knows we use teleportation as a means of transport. The meeting with Dranz goes way beyond that but we will not reveal that capability at this point. Besides as you know, we do not answer the questions we do not want to answer and are not troubled by public speculation. I was clearly trying to provoke Dranz and was successful in getting answers to my questions by doing that. These folks are a nasty piece of work. There will be those who want us to destroy them outright but we would have to live with that deed. While genocide may be on the Gar's list of things they are willing to do it is not on mine. We do intend to confine them to their planet. We will try to destroy that part of their infrastructure that generates this extreme xenophobia. We have a plan coming together but it is not quite there yet. One thing that is not part of this upcoming meeting is the fact that the Gar has three more invasion fleets underway. Those are going away from Gar in the opposite direction from Earth. We will also be dealing with that issue as well. The human who made the unfortunate comment that the Gar were an evolutionary dead end was likely correct. He died for uttering the observation. Generally, where we think we are going with this is to return them all to their home planet and then quarantine it. We will probably use a six-month rotation to guard the planet from outsiders and make sure they do not get back into space. How long that will last is anyone's guess. It is not a role that I relish but someone has to do it."

"It looks like our progress on this whole thing is substantially ahead of schedule. We expect to resolve this whole Gar thing in the next three months. We have a particularly good ally in the Glarin. Ah excuse me, Barana, is Vassim available." Vassim appeared. Hank went on, "Vassim, I would like you to meet the President of the United States, one of the countries on Earth and the one in which I was born. Mr. President, this is Vassim, he was the leader of the seven Glarin ships met initially. Vassim and his troops have joined our Marines and it is a joy to watch them work."

The President and Vassim shook hands and exchanged courtesies. "Hank, Curt and I have to get back, but if it is ok, can Anne and William stay a bit longer. They can use the break." Hank nodded agreement. The President continued, "Kar, if you will walk with me to find my wife, I will share those nuances I mentioned to help you do a better incognito." Kar grinned and nodded agreement. "See you in a couple of days Hank."

### February 7 – C Day 161 ###

Three days later, the leaders from Earth and emissaries from the other planets arrived. Fador did the usual opening greeting and then Hank took the stage and started his briefing. He described events leading to the rescue of the seven Glarin ships, Operation Buster and Operation Sweep with its rescue of the Glarin people. He then noted the discovery of the new Gar fleet and the discussion with Dranz. He noted that his approach was antagonistic in hopes of discovering why the Gar is prosecuting their invasion with such persistence, a ploy that was obviously successful. He said that they intended to neutralize the new fleet and return the Gar to their planet. He noted that the casualty rate for the Antoran fleet was zero and that the Gar casualties were due to friendly fire.

Hank then indicated that he was willing to take some questions but did not feel obligated to respond to every question. The first question asked how much longer the Gar campaign was expected to take. Hank said the expected to be done in the next six months.

The next question was one that he expected. Why not just bomb them out of existence. Hanks response was that the Antoran Fleet did not engage in genocide. The questions went on for another 20 minutes with no surprises. At that point, Hank indicated that there would be a reception out on the lawn as was done previously. Hank circulated amongst them for about an hour and then the fete was over and the leaders were returned to their offices.