OMEGA Conscript (24 page)

Jack replied, "That won't work. The moment you leave the ground with those transports you'll be detected. And I'd bet those battleships have a slight speed advantage over these transports. They would catch you before you got much out of this system."

Go crossed his arms. "Well, we have eight hundred and twelve ships. If we split up initially, they would only catch a handful of us. After meeting up at a rally point, we could come back with the
Garmon
to figure out how to get the rest out of here."

I leaned back in my chair. "That's an admirable plan, Go. I will take that under consideration. If the battleships do confront us, what other options might we have?"

Garrett gestured toward Jack. "We could threaten them with the nukes. Let us go or we'll blast you. I still think we just wait for that portal to open and rush through."

I raised Getta on the comm. "I'm seeking your guidance on an issue. I believe it to be in our best interest to leave this place. I know I cannot convince the Council of such, but I can order my Talisans to leave. Our current choices are a diversion followed by a run in many directions by our transports. The Salton ships in orbit would not catch us all, so most would get away. Or, we threaten them with the nuclear warheads we have here on the
Garmon
."

Garrett interjected, "Or we run through the portal to try to take control of it."

Getta thought for a moment. "I believe I have a hybrid option that might work for you. You have fewer troops now than when we arrived. You need fewer transports to move them. I would transfer all the supplies off those extra transports and then send them out as your decoys. If the Saltons take chase after, let's say, fifty of them, you might just have a diversion that is worthy of an escape."

Garrett nodded. "I have to say I like that idea. We send a big group of empty transports out for them to chase while the rest of us slip away. I guess we can come back at any time with the
Garmon
to sneak through that portal. He has been opening that thing a lot more."

I smiled and nodded to Getta. "I am humbled by your brilliance as always."

Getta returned the smile. "When your plan is underway, I will inform the Council. They will be angry over not having the information sooner, but they will have to live with what they have. I have not been ordered to spy on my husband. So I do not have to relay this plan to the Council until you are gone. All I ask is that you give me a comm when you are on your way. That will leave a call log of when I was informed of your plan. The Council will have no recourse but to accept that which has already happened."

In an attempt to not arouse suspicion, the transfer of soldiers and supplies occurred over a two day period. Each day, two new battleships came through the portal. In an effort to make best use of our resources, eighty-eight empty transports would be sent out with predetermined nav points entered into their systems. The ships would each move in a direction that was away from our primary goal and separate from each other.

As night began to fall at the end of the second day, the order to send out the decoys was given. All at once, eighty-eight transports powered up and lifted off, moving in a direction that was at first away from the Salton battleships. The battleship reactions were slow, but one-by-one they moved from their stationary orbit, heading after the fleeing transports. As the transports reached orbit, they began heading off in separate directions. As planned, the battleships followed in hot pursuit.

I nodded at Jack. "Send out the word. Take us just over the horizon and up."

As we came up through orbit, an alert went off on our nav screen. Two new battleships had come through the portal and were fast approaching our position.

Jack turned the
Garmon
in their direction.

Garrett asked, "What are you planning?"

Jack replied, "I'll be dropping a nuke in their path to deter them. If that doesn't work, we just try to run and lead them away from the others."

Garrett stood. "If we are playing that game, then we might as well do it with two ships. I'll take out the
Jess
to do the same. Just let me know if you'll be detonating one of those things."

Go stood as well. "I'll go with him. As a last resort … we can let ourselves get captured."

Garrett stopped. "Now what kind of plan is that?"

Go smiled as he blinked out. "They will have you, but they won't have me. I think we could affect an escape easy enough once the transports are away."

Garrett shook his head as he continued toward the
Jess
. "That's easy for you to say. You won't be the one they are torturing and killing to find out where the transports went."

Go blinked in and slapped Garrett on the back as they left the bridge. "Don't worry. I won't let that happen."

Jack moved the nav screen to the main holo-display. "Launching a missile now. ETA is three minutes. It should go off right in their path, but early enough to not cause any harm. It looks like they are focusing in on us as well."

Shortly after, Garrett came over the comm" "We are out. Tell me where you want me."

Jack replied, "That nuke is on your display. Just stay away from it and you'll be fine. You might want to head to the right a bit, as that's away from the transports."

The fermium missile detonated as expected. The battleships, however, kept coming our way.

Garrett said, "Go has an idea. Let us give it a shot. The two of you should head out."

Jack looked at me. "I think worst case they end up back down on that planet as prisoners. But I don't think that will happen. That suit Go is wearing is too big of an advantage. He could take out both of those battleships on his own if he can get aboard."

Garrett continued, "That's the plan. I will pull up lame, spew out a few thousand joules of ions like something has broke, and Go will sneak aboard their ships to temporarily disable their power. If they don't just off and kill me first. I think it will work."

I replied, "If you are willing to take the risk, make it happen."

Garrett laughed. "Not sure when my lucky streak will run out, but here goes."

The
Jess
came to a stop in the path of the two battleships. The sensor screen lit up with a burst of ion emissions. To the average pilot, the ion burst would appear as a malfunction of the gravity drive system.

Garrett received a hail which he patched through. "This is Captain Montelake of the battleship
Cambridge
. You are in Salton space and are ordered to hold your position."

Garrett replied, "Our drive is blown. We won't offer any resistance."

The captain looked into the camera of his comm. "Your friends, you would do well to have them surrender."

Garrett glanced over his shoulder toward our physical location. "Them? They aren't my friends and I don't have any control over them. They can hear your hail, you'll have to ask them directly."

Bernhardt Montelake frowned. "Either your friends stop or we destroy you here and now."

I looked at Jack. "We can't let them do that."

Jack shook his head. "He's bluffing. No decent captain would fire upon a crippled ship when he only just got here. He needs more information before he would make such a rash decision."

The two battleships slowed as the
Garmon
continued away.

The captain reiterated his threat. "This is a final warning to the partner ship. Halt and prepare to be boarded or we will destroy your smaller friend."

Garrett yelled through the hail comm. "We've surrendered! They don't know us and don't care! What kind of barbaric captain are you!"

The battleships came to a stop. A tug shuttle emerged from a docking bay on the side of the
Cambridge
.

The captain said over the comm, "You are now prisoners of the New Alliance. You are traveling without a transponder, a violation punishable by death. I would suggest you cooperate. What is the meaning of your action out here and where are those transports heading? Keep in mind, we have many ways of making you talk other than simple threats."

Garrett nodded as Go blinked out and powered toward the battleships. "I won't be trouble. The fight down there is over. We took it as an opportunity to leave."

The captain shook his head. "You speak Alliance English, and you are in a war sector where only conscripts are allowed. If you are leaving, that makes you a deserter."

Garrett shrugged as Go came over a separate comm channel. "I'm taking out the sensor feed to the generator cooling system. That should trigger an automatic shutdown of their power plants. They should only have emergency power available for life support after that."

Garrett replied, "No weapons?"

The captain looked confused. "What?"

Garrett looked back at the captain on his holo-display. "Sorry, I was just saying we have no weapons."

Go replied, "We're about to find out."

Go blinked in and out, eliminating the sensors. The great ship's systems immediately began shutting down. Go powered toward his next victim.

The captain turned as alerts flashed on his displays and the captain of the
Merphias
hailed him.

Montelake’s comm was still open: "What has happened?"

The other captain could be heard replying: "We just lost complete power. All generators are offline. We are looking into the cause as we speak. At the moment, we don't have any readings from the cooling sensors."

Bernhardt Montelake stared at the other display for several seconds before turning back to face Garrett with a scowl.

Go said, "Ship two is going offline."

Garrett smiled at the comm camera. "Catch you later, Captain. We have other business to attend to."

With the loss of power, the comm system on the
Cambridge
switched to emergency use only, cutting off the angry captain's image.

Go was soon back aboard the
Jess
. "I'm thinking we have about half an hour before they have those sensor modules replaced. We should get going."

Garrett nodded. "Two battleships. I had my doubts, but as a secret weapon, you are awesome. And I mean that. Awesome! Knog, we're on our way!"

As we turned back, alerts went off on our nav screen again. The Grunta transports on Doomlight had lifted off. Their initial heading had them moving in our direction, toward the portal. After our initial attempt at contact, their purpose for moving became clear. The transports were empty. Harden Salton was stranding the Grunta on Doomlight until he decided it was time for their use. If the Grumar and Grotus were to return with enough ships to overpower the small fleet that remained, the Grunta, my family, would be slaughtered.

The
Jess
joined up with the
Garmon
. We were soon riding along with the other transports and my Talisan army. A last ditch effort to bring Getta and my family with us failed. They were not deserters. They would stay to fight with the others if a fight came.

For me, I was not in the Grunta military and not under the direct jurisdiction of the Council. My popularity had seen to it that I would be left to do what I pleased. My newest mission? To get the Odentas to accept us as refugees. I was banking on our prior assistance being enough to persuade them. If that happened, I would return to Doomlight, bringing back the transports for the Grunta.

Doomlight had been a hard-fought battle. Millions of my Talisan soldiers had died in the thousand different battles that had raged. While the Grotus were formidable, they could be beaten. If I could also rescue my Grunta family, I would have renewed hope for our futures.

~~~~~

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   Chapter 5.1

The Odentas were welcoming to our fleet of Talisan refugees. Against our wishes, they had cloned the smart AI several times and added twenty thousand autobots to their ranks. A quarter of the bots were tasked with building more bots while the remaining machines were put to use rebuilding much of what had been lost in the fight with the Grotus.

Garrett was the first to speak up. "This is exactly what I didn't want to have happen. A mentality where one is good so two must be twice as good. We need to put a stop to this before it gets completely out of hand, which in my opinion, has already happened."

Go replied, "I see this as a great opportunity. Just think what a factory with a million of those bots, or five million could do. Hand them a design. Point at the resources that need to be gathered or mined, and then just sit back and watch as a full ship is assembled, possibly in days."

Garrett shook his head. "Or they build an army, kick our ass, and it's over."

Go turned to face me. "We could use them to build our own battleships. Or even enough transports to go back and get everyone off of Doomlight."

I looked at Jack. "We
are
in need of a fleet. I would be inclined to build fighting ships before transports. Any thoughts?"

Jack replied, "Fighting ships would have to come first."

I placed my hand on Garrett's shoulder. "I think they're right. We need to look at these AIs as tools. I also agree that we don't want them to get out of control. So we'll put you in charge of monitoring them. We'll give you a kill switch should something happen where they become a threat instead of an asset. Does that sound like a function you would want control over?"

Garrett replied immediately. "Since it looks like their expanded use has already been decided, I'll gladly take on that role. But let me say this right now: the moment I see anything suspicious, anything at all, I will shut them down with a vengeance."

Garrett turned to Go. "Would you care to assist me in getting a kill switch set up? I think you are the one to best see that a good implementation is put in place, something with fail-safes."

Go replied, "I could do that. And thank you for placing your trust in me."

Garrett let out a sarcastic laugh. "Yeah, trust, just know that I'm also planning to have a half dozen of the Talisan engineers looking over your shoulder. And I want the switch set up so that me, you, Knog, or Jack can activate it from our arm pads, or from the consoles in the
Garmon
and the
Jess
. If we do this, it needs to work as a complete kill, not just some temporary shutdown."

Go looked at me for approval. I nodded.

Go pursed his lips and replied to Garrett. "OK, let's go get it done."

Jack glanced up at a display showing the current set of autobots at work. "You might want to inform the Odentas about your plans."

I shook my head, "They don't need to know about the kill switch. But, I will inform them about our plans to construct a fleet. I believe they will be thrilled to be involved in that in every way. They still have to be reeling from all that has happened here in the last year. Going from a peaceful, world-bound society to a conspirator in a war that spans galaxies has to be a shock. Their lives will never be the same."

I met with the Chancellor of the Odentas, Marun Iklause. He was tall for an Odenta, nearly equaling my height. His gangly face and long stride set him apart from the others.

As we walked on a high catwalk, stretched between two buildings of their new capital city, Marun talked. "I believe our interaction with both the Grunta and the Talisan to be beneficial. We may have only just begun our ventures into space as a species, but we are realists. If there are others out there who would come here and cause us harm, we must be fully prepared to defend ourselves. This Grotus threat has really opened our eyes to what we must do. If we must sacrifice all our time for fun and frolic, so be it."

I replied, "I believe you are making a wise choice, Chancellor. I am certain that you will have many difficult choices to make before any semblance of security returns. The fact that your people are willing to make the necessary sacrifices says a lot about your character."

The Chancellor nodded. "We still have our flaws, Mr. Beutcher. There are those among us that wish your kind gone from our planet. They feel that it was you that brought this threat upon us, and that if you were to leave, the threat would leave with you."

I sighed. "I can assure you, Chancellor, if the Grotus are left alone, they will come. And when they do, your entire populace will either be killed or enslaved. If you show any strong will at all, they will butcher you en masse. Help us build this fleet and we will do all we can to assist in your defense should it be needed."

The Chancellor stopped, looking over a railing and out onto the city before us. "What of the Grunta, Mr. Beutcher, your own people?"

I leaned on the rail. "The ruling Council for my people can be headstrong. They will do what it takes to survive, just not always in the best order for those around them. But they are good solid people. If they give you their word, they will abide by what they said."

The Chancellor asked. "If we build these ships, what will our arsenal of weapons be?"

I replied, "Well, that's where we have bit of a problem. Our weapons have primarily been ion blasters. We don't have a way to manufacture the amplifiers that are required to give the power output we need for a weapon. We can build amplifiers, not efficient, but sufficient, to make our generators work, but that's as far as we can go.

We have the fermium missiles from your stocks, but those are only effective in very restricted confines. Space is a big place. The Grotus are now aware of their destructive power and will just move away from their slow speed. We can construct lasers, but again, they are not as refined or powerful as those possessed by the Grotus. We are in desperate need of something new."

The Chancellor held up a long index finger. "Perhaps your scientists should speak with our scientists. For years we have studied gravity, and similar to you, we can only grasp its use and not what makes it function. They have studied your implementation of the gravity drive in the last months with great enthusiasm. I have been told, but I do not have a full understanding of it, that a weapon of sorts may be possible."

I replied with interest. "If you have anything at all I'm sure our scientists and engineers would be happy to work together with yours. The Talisans are not the best at coming up with new ideas, but they are excellent at implementing them."

The Chancellor continued, "It is our understanding that a gravity pulse travels outward in the form of a wave. That wave can either be attractive or repulsive. When a wave emanates from a point source like your gravity drive or shield, it spreads outward from the emitter, dropping drastically in intensity as a function of distance traveled, much like a sound wave.

"We have what we believe are conclusive experiments in the lab, where a wave can be sped up on the outer edges of a point, while the center remains at standard speed. This would allow the gravity emitted to travel in a beam, keeping its power over a much greater distance, and in a confined space."

I smiled. "For someone who says they don't have a good grasp on that science, it sure sounds as though you have a good understanding of it."

The Chancellor replied, "I have just enough understanding that I can repeat what I have been told, Mr. Beutcher. Please don't mistake that for any in depth knowledge."

"Excuse me for a moment, Chancellor," I said. "I would like to get our people together on this immediately if possible."

The Chancellor nodded as I opened a comm. "Jack, have the Talisans assemble a team of their most knowledgeable gravity engineers. See to it that they are shuttled over to the Odenta science complex in the capital. We may have stumbled onto something we can use as a weapon. The Chancellor will set up any approvals needed on this end by the time they get there."

Jack replied, "I'll get right on it."

The Chancellor took a moment to contact his people before returning to the conversation. "Mr. Beutcher, if we build a fleet, if we rescue the Gruntas, if we defeat the Grotus. What then?"

I leaned back on the railing. "Then, we figure out how to put together an alliance that will last. There are a great many other species out there, most passive, but many hostile. We will need a fleet that can defend against all comers. And we will need leadership that recognizes our differences and works to best serve all species and not just their own. Those are tall tasks."

The Chancellor smiled. "It would appear that you have it figured out already, Mr. Beutcher. I understand that what you are saying is idealistic at best. Leadership is only as good as the direction it takes you in. We have had our share of Chancellors who lead us down the wrong path. Even though they were well-intentioned, the results were disastrous for our people. If a board, or council, or congress needs to be put together, we would need fair-minded individuals like yourself to staff it."

I held up my hand. "I'm not your man, Chancellor. You will find that Gruntas can be stubborn once our minds are made up. There are a few who would be open minded enough to be on such a council, but not many."

The Chancellor asked, "And what of your Talisan brothers and sisters?"

I chuckled. "No, I don't think they would be good at that job. They have a lack of moral fiber. Not that they are bad, but they can too easily be both good or bad. The Talisan follow their emperor, wherever it is that he may lead them."

The Chancellor continued, "Is there no species that you would find honorable enough to serve?"

I replied, "Species, no, but there are individuals among the species who would have to do. The hope would be that you get enough reasonable ones together that they can make sound decisions for governing everyone. We had that for two thousand years before the current leadership corrupted the system and overthrew it. I have seen what works. It may be difficult for us to achieve, that's all."

After my talk with the Chancellor had come to an end, I returned to the
Garmon
. Go and Garrett had implemented a kill switch for the AIs and turned their efforts toward building ships. A design was settled upon which was slightly larger than the
Garmon
, with an outer hull that was three times as thick.

The Odentas' laser reflection technology was applied to the hull designs, making them much less vulnerable to the Grotus laser threat. The Odenta and Talisan scientists and engineers quickly had a working model of the gravity weapon, which turned out to not be much of a weapon. An opposing ship or missile could be pulled toward or pushed away from a gravity emitter. The power needed for this task came from emitting the gravitational wave as a beam. Its use as a weapon was theorized to come into play only if the opposing ship was coming directly at you at the time a gravity beam was emitted. If its gravity shield could be overwhelmed, a repulsive beam might actually penetrate the forward decks of a ship, in theory.

Within a month, the number of AIs had topped four thousand and the autobots just over a million. Garrett watched diligently for the first sign of robotic trouble. None had come.

As the first of the
Garmon
class cruisers took flight, an evening was taken for celebrations. I liked the Odenta people: they were warm, thoughtful, and friendly, like many of the Humans I had come across during the days of the AMP.

The following day we took the
Garmon
and our newest cruiser, the
Odentus
, out for flight tests. After a day in the heavens, we returned to the planet's surface. The new ship had performed perfectly in every category of test.

Jack offered a suggestion. "It will take some time to get a fleet together that we can take back to Doomlight. However, this might be a good opportunity for us to go back to check on the situation. We can stop short with the
Odentus
and
Garmon
, allowing Garrett to go in close with the
Jess
to spy. It would also be the next logical step for testing out the
Odentus
."

After a moment of thought, I replied, "Your suggestion has merit. I'll run it by the Chancellor when I see him in about an hour. We can run the same crew that we ran on the tests yesterday. When we get back, they can be assigned to train new crews."

That afternoon the
Garmon
and
Odentus
lifted off. The trip to Doomlight brought several surprises. When the gravity pulsor was configured as an attractor, it could be used as a tractor beam. The
Odentus
crew repeatedly practiced pulling the
Garmon
in closer to her location. The
Jess
was taken out and on several occasions pulled into the docking bay on the cruiser's side.

As a second surprise, when configured as a repulsor, the device could be used to increase the ship's forward momentum. With the repulsor running free, the
Odentus
would outpace the
Garmon
's speed, by as much as 15 percent. In the dead of space, speed offered a critical advantage.