SODIUM:5 Assault (4 page)

I then sought out the other alliances around the world and gave each a similar speech. When each had agreed to my unconditional terms, terms which brought an end to their desperation and an end to their suffering, I unleashed my army of Barhoo to begin the terraforming of a devastated world.

Within two years of my return Man was experiencing a baby boom the likes of which he had never seen. More than 300 million Barhoo swam in our oceans which were once again teaming with life. Hordes of robotic machines tilled the soils, whole rivers had been diverted for irrigation and rebuilt factories turned out product.

Teams of scientists and engineers had been brought aboard the alien mega-ship where full evaluations of every technology had been logged, studied and enhanced where possible. Construction of factories for three new mega-ships was underway. The Zachery Class of war cruiser was born. Man was making a rapid comeback.

The robotic intelligence of the Kurtz unmanned craft was studied and enhanced with newer, smaller and much more powerful fighters being the result. The mega-ship's normal contingent of 5,000 fighters was increased by a factor of ten. The Barhoo piloted skimmers were a thing of the past.

A robotic army worked tirelessly day and night removing the remaining radioactive contamination from the nuclear food wars; contaminated ground was processed and the waters and skies filtered. The nuclear cleanup was expected to be complete within a few months. The remaining fissionable material was collected and stockpiled for future Human Empire needs.

City governors were allowed wide latitude on how they governed with trade disputes settled by regional councils. There were few disputes however, as food was plentiful as was work as well as time off to enjoy Man's new riches.

Robotic factories ran 24 / 7 under the supervision of men. No Human wanted for food or drink or shelter. Education systems were streamlined, medical facilities enhanced and technologies improved.

By the fifth year of my reign, Earth's population had grown by 30%. Every man woman and child wore a BGS suit and had an audio implant, making each more effective with their time. No longer did we require three meals a day, no longer were there telephone or electrical wires strung from poles. Transportation was provided by robotic cars that followed the rider’s directions.

On the medical front our scientists and researchers had adapted the alien medical technologies to our own physiology. The results were a 50% increase in our expected longevity. With the strict diets and exercise that came as a result of the BGS, Man's longevity was expected to increase by another 50% on top of the first. A newly born human could expect to live for 150 years or more. Advancements on all fronts were rapid and expanding with each new day.

Crime had diminished and what little there was, was dealt with in a swift and severe manner. It was in no one's best interest to be plotting or planning against others when life and the new freedoms and health we enjoyed were available to everyone. The governors were held to an especially high standard.

I returned to the family farm frequently to be around the remaining family I had. It was a relief from the constant stress I had placed upon my own shoulders with the running of an entire world. It was an escape that was needed for me to maintain my sanity as the hours I kept were long and my work ethic relentless.

On the anniversary of the seventh year of my return I ordered a world celebration for what had been achieved and to announce our new goals. I broadcast a live video from the command center on-board the HESS Tork, the first of the Zachery Class cruisers named after a fellow crewman who had risked his life and sacrificed his health for his fellow man. His life had been lost during the food wars, but not before he had given his last breath in the service of others.

Along with the celebration I made an announcement. The plans had been made and the keels laid for the first Battleship as well as our first space exploration vessel. I then told of my goal to take three of the first five Battleships along with ten cruisers to Epsilon Eridani. The celebrations soon went from cheers to silence.

I reasoned that Man was on the upswing, we would soon be well armed and we were in need of new goals and new directions. It was "our" generations that would be the example for the new Human Empire, we would be the foundation upon which it would grow and prosper and as such we were the ones who would have to show the way.

I told of how our intellect and technologies would be superior and our planning and execution precise. We would be relentless in our pursuits until such time as free man ruled the galaxy. The responding applause was tepid.

I continued with my grandiose speech with each new paragraph adding to what we could expect as a people. Each new sentence I delivered had been crafted to inspire and enthuse. By the time the speech came to its conclusion the cheering and the celebrations had returned in full force. Man was prepared to venture into the stars, to explore, to expand and to fulfill his new destiny.

The day had finally come for the first fleet of the Human Empire to head for our enemy at Epsilon Eridani. Preparation had been long in the making and the crews were well trained at their posts. It was a force far superior to anything Man had seen or envisioned only a few short years before.

The Battleships Atlanta, New York and Tel Aviv led up the armada along with a dozen Zachery Class cruisers and forty newly commissioned Brenner Class destroyers, each equipped with our newest shielding, drives and weapons. The fleet could deploy more than nine million autonomous mini-fighters in under a minute.

Each battleship carried a contingent of 150,000 BGS Marines while being crewed by fewer than 4,000. The four medical bays on-board each ship were top notch with each being able to handle 200 simultaneous emergency surgeries as well as recuperation bedding for more than 5,000 injured.

The battleships were 100 kilometers in length by 40 kilometers wide by 8 kilometers tall. They held enough Sodium fuel to remain powered under normal conditions for more than 30 years, and enough food and recyclable supplies to last the equivalent. They were cities unto themselves.

Each craft was driven by our newest centralized BHD which allowed near instantaneous turns and acceleration in any direction. Shielding had been enhanced to allow space travel at 7,500 SOL with random strike protection being the equivalent of a collision with a bus sized object. Our true maximum speed was unknown as the BHD would continue to accelerate if left at full power.

With our newest active Sodium skins and centralized BHDs our ships could remain invisible while accelerating or decelerating in any direction. Active gun ports could be enabled or disabled allowing the firing of weapons while maintaining an extremely small signature.

Our sensors had been refined with the combined optical, infrared and RF sensors from our own history as well as that of the Kurtz. In addition, the Kurtz scientist Boota, along with an international team of physicists, had created a new "long wave" sensor that could detect the movement of a medium sized ship from more than five light years distance.

Our communications had been enhanced with the QE comm as the centerpiece. Millions of specialized robots had been tasked with the estimated 40,000 tries it took to produce a single Quantum Entangled pair. At latest count we were producing more than 1,000 QE pairs a day. Every manned ship was equipped with redundant pairs as well as every BGS Marine squad leader and all ship officers. The instant communications were also fed back to command centers on Earth.

Our firepower was superior. The gravity beams aboard the battleships could reach outward to 80,000 kilometers, the cruisers to 40,000 and the destroyers to 8,000. The Protactinium coil guns, if supplied with enough pellets and fired continuously, had the ability to cut an object the size of the Moon clean in half in just under a month. Projectiles moved at 0.8 SOL. I shuddered to think of what damage they might do if the SOL was broken.

After months of space trials the first fleet had taken to the skies with much fanfare and celebration. We had assembled at twice the distance of the Moon from the Earth. My commanders awaited my orders.

I sat in my command chair on the bridge of the Atlanta, checking the status reports of each vessel as they came in. My chair sat high on the upper of five levels that stepped down towards a view screen that gave the appearance of a giant window into space with a 160 degree view. Each successive level in front of and below me had 20 battle commanders who coordinated our movements, weapons and defenses.

Hershen, along with my four human bodyguards, stood behind me, keeping an ever watchful eye on the happenings around me. I flipped a holo-switch and was shown a video grid with each of my captains occupying a small square.

As each looked on I asked for a moment of silence to remember all who had perished during our years of war, a moment for all who were present who had trained and toiled to bring us to where we were and a moment for our new generations who would soon follow us out into the stars.

When a full minute of silence had passed I raised my arm and then brought it down slowly with a single finger pointing towards Epsilon Eridani. In an instant the view of Earth grew small and disappeared, the sun went from its ever present hugeness to nothing more than a bright star before going dark and the counters for our journey ticked away; 26 hours and 12 minutes until our arrival.

In an attempt to be as prepared as we could be I ordered war simulations to be run every two hours. Each new shift would have just come off some type of battle leaving them better prepared when the real test arrived.

I sat in my Captain's chair going over statistics from the simulations and monitoring the readiness status of every ship under my command. When the time came I wanted our opponent to be immediately overwhelmed and convinced to surrender. I reasoned that Rial Doria was not a fool and would soon fall in line with her sister.

Our fleet far outnumbered and outgunned the lone Kurtz mega-ship, that is, unless it had received reinforcements. In our simulations I had ordered a dozen such ships to show up as a surprise for my crews to gage their readiness to deal with such. They had performed flawlessly with each battle being over within a matter of minutes.

In the simulations our fighters ripped through those of the alien vessel with ease, our shields blocked their powerful gravity beams and our coil guns made short work of their defenses. Everything had been planned out and every contingency accounted for. I was convinced that our opposition did not stand a chance.

As the arrival counter ticked down towards zero we got our first optical views of Alvin. I had forgotten how beautiful its oceans were when lit up by the pale orange sun. I was a bit disappointed when it became apparent that the twin moons of Alvin were large debris fields. Gravity had done its nasty deed.

Our defensive specialists scanned the space around Alvin, but had no signal of any kind to indicate that our enemy was still there. When we dropped below SOL I had my fleet waiting in attack formation. It soon became apparent that there would be no battle that day. Rial Doria, the mega-ship and the submerged Barhoo processing city were all gone.

The adrenaline pumped through my veins, but I could not put it to any use. The Epsilon Eridani system was quiet, it had been abandoned. I had my teams do optical scans in the direction of the nearest star systems, but the reports all came back with nothing but emptiness. I immediately brought Rial Mabia to the bridge to question as to where they might have gone.

The Kurtz home world was on the outskirts of the Frekkin Empire in the system around the star Rho Puppis. The distance from Epsilon Eridani to Rho Puppis was 59 light years. It had taken the alien mining fleet 84 years to reach Epsilon Eridani. Rial Mabia's best guess was that they were on their way home using a Transit Pull.

I asked what a Transit Pull was and was told that it was of Frekkin technology. As far as she knew it was a cylindrical device sitting in space that was approximately 500 of our kilometers long by 50 of our kilometers diameter. When powered up, a gravity beam of sorts would be generated and any ship riding in that beam would receive an added acceleration past light speed when traveling towards the Transit. A tractor beam immediately came to mind.

A ship in the beam was able to travel towards its source at seven SOL. The trip from Epsilon Eridani back to their home world would take 9 years in the beam. It was a technology the Frekkin used to keep the 46 systems in their realm within their reach. A Transit Pull at either end of two star systems was their equivalent of a superhighway in space.

Rial Doria was likely already home and facing charges of negligence in a high court. She would be demoted at least two levels, damaging the families position for many centuries. I told Mabia that it should not matter to her as she herself had been elevated far above the position of a mining fleet captain. She was the first Kurtz Ambassador to the Human Empire. Each time that fact was restated to her she could not help but to pull back her shoulders and display a broad smile.

I asked our sensor team if they could scan for the residual effects of the Transit Pull beam, they immediately began their work. My next command was to fully evaluate the Epsilon Eridani system so that future explorers might have information and direction from which to begin their explorations. Mapping of every object in the system was immediately undertaken.

I then turned back to Rial Mabia to ask about the Frekkin fleet. Her response was that she had never seen it, nor had she seen pictures or any other evidence of it. The Frekkin had not been to Rho Puppis for centuries, but stories of their existence from travelers had kept everyone happily in line. The rumors were that the fleet was far bigger than the fleet we currently had assembled and that there were many technologies that were unknown to and well beyond the Kurtz abilities. The Kurtz themselves were mere infants in the realm of space.

It had been thousands of years since the Frekkin first arrived at Rho Puppis and their dominance had been swift and complete. The hierarchical systems had been imposed and within a few generations of Kurtz the old ways were a distant thing of the past. Within four generations there was no historical record of the prior Kurtz history and any recording, writing or retelling of such had been outlawed under penalty of death. The Kurtz had adapted quickly to the new system and the order it had given to their lives.

I had trouble imagining what technologies the Frekkin could possibly have that would be far superior to what we possessed. From their Transit Pull system I knew they could travel above SOL, but seven times was nothing compared to what our current ships were capable of.

I wondered what weapons they might have to use against us and about their shielding and how effective it would be against our weapons. I wondered if they had the same Sodium active skin and if they were just sitting off our port side watching our every move from their cloaked state. I called a counsel of my captains to discuss.

As we threw out ideas a status came in from the sensor team. They had indeed located debris. More than four million Barhoo bodies had been identified in an area where other debris had been jettisoned. No doubt their numbers had been culled to the minimum for the journey home.

I discussed our options with the captains of shift two and then ordered the talks to overlap with shift three as a transition to the next team. Shift two was then relieved of duty to begin their rest with the knowledge that they would be fully informed of any decisions.

Our discussions continued into the wee hours of shift three before a plan was put in place. A single destroyer with a minimal crew would be given the assignment of the reconnaissance of Rho Puppis. Travel to the Rho Puppis system would take approximately four days and upon their arrival they would remain in place with full shielding and do nothing but observe. With the QE comm our fleet would have immediate access to all the information their sensors could gather.

Coordinates were entered and within an hour the destroyer Shanghai was on its way. Captain Dang Dang Wan along with a skeleton crew of twelve Humans and one Kurtz were soon speeding through space at 7,500 SOL. He took it as a great honor that he and his crew would be the first Humans to set eyes upon a populated alien world.

Captain Dang wasted no time getting his crew familiar with their orders. The crewmen were maintenance workers, all responsible for keeping the ship’s systems in top operational order. Control of the sensors had been automated and turned over to my crew aboard the Atlanta. The flight passed midpoint and the ship was soon decelerating on its approach to Rho Puppis.

All eyes were on the large holo-screen on the bridge as the first views of the Kurtz home world appeared. The Kurtz planet of Toleda was the fourth from their sun. It was slightly larger than Earth, but lacked the iron core that increased our gravitational pull, leaving the Kurtz with a gravity that measured 0.815, slightly less than our own.

Toleda was beautiful with deep blue waters that ran in long stretches throughout the land masses. The land was green and gold with white snow-capped mountains strewn about in long ridges that stretched for much of the planets perimeter. As the Shanghai moved closer we could make out the glowing lights of the massive Kurtz cities on the night side of the planet.

Soon the single moon of Toleda made its way into view from the far side of the planet. As the destroyer slowed to a stop we had our first looks at the Frekkin Transit Pull. There were eight such pulls in a cluster located in a stationary position just outside of Toleda's orbit. The entire scene as viewed on our high resolution holo-screen was surreal.

For seven days we used the destroyer's sensors to monitor traffic coming in and out of the Rho Puppis system. Most of the ships were small transports, but we were treated to the rare arrival of one of the Sodium harvesters from a far system. The massive ship had in tow a string of massive containers that stretched out for 500 kilometers behind it.

There was enough Sodium in the one haul to power the entire planet of Toleda for hundreds of years. But the mega-ship and its cargo were soon lined up in the same direction as one of the Transit Pulls. Rial Mabia identified the pull as heading towards the Waffen home world of Eldred in the Spica system. It was a 221 light year journey from Toleda.

I quizzed Mabia on the Waffen and was told they were a species of flyers. They were bipeds, but they made use of thin membranes that would stretch out under their arms, allowing them to cruise from a higher location to a lower one much like the flying squirrels of Earth. Eldred was a rocky world with few flatlands and the Waffen had genetically adapted to their environment through many millennia giving them their gliding ability.

But the shipment would not stop there. It would likely continue on for another four hops before reaching the Frekkin world of Mossis. Mossis was rumored to be a gateway world and as such was heavily armed as a first defense for the Frekkin worlds, of which there were twelve. Everything in the empire revolved around those twelve planets. At least that was what Rial Mabia had been taught in her grade school education nearly 250 Earth years before.