The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (25 page)

“That’s your
opinion,” Stroud said dismissively. “I think we could have negotiated with the
Profiteers and perhaps given them enough gold and other valuables so they would
have left us alone. The planet never would have been nuked! Tens of millions of
people died due to your lack of leadership. That lack of leadership has further
been demonstrated by your granting Newton its independence.”

“Let’s vote,”
demanded Dwight Michaels, the Secretary of the Treasury.

“I second the
motion,” said Andrew Sallow, the Secretary of Energy.

“All in favor
of removing President Mayfield from office raise your hands,” Stroud said,
raising his own.

Eight hands
were raised in favor of removal.

“Opposed.”

Only Secretary
of State Anne Roselin, Secretary of Defense General Braid, and Secretary of
Homeland Security Raul Gutierrez raised their hands in opposition. Fleet
Admiral Tomalson was on board the
Retribution
and wasn’t present to
vote.

“The motion is
carried by a majority vote of the Cabinet,” said Stroud, gazing at the
president with a smirk. “Do you have anything to say?”

“No,” replied
Mayfield, disgusted with the proceedings. “You’ll bring this country to ruin,
and I want no part of it.” With that Mayfield stood and walked from the
conference room, not looking back.

General Braid
stood up and laid a sheet of paper on the conference table in front of him.
“This is my resignation, effective immediately. I’ll have no part in what this Cabinet’s
doing. This country is a democracy, and you’re violating our founding
principles with this cowardly action.”

“Same with
me,” Raul added as he laid down his own resignation on the table. “I want no
part of any of this.”

The two men
turned and left the conference room without saying another word.

“Good
riddance,” Stroud said, pleased the two had resigned their posts. It made what
he planned to do next much easier. “Now we need to pick a replacement for
president, and we have two Cabinet positions that also need filling.”

-

Later that
afternoon Stroud sat in the president’s office. He leaned back in his new chair,
enjoying the feeling of power that was now his. He had won the nomination
easily by a majority vote of the Cabinet. Since he was now in power, he fully
intended to stay. It wouldn’t be that hard to manipulate the general population
to ensure he won the next election. He had also sent a message to the vice
president demanding his immediate resignation. He would choose his own vice
president, someone who would do whatever he demanded.

However, he
had one other order of business he needed to take care of. Tomalson needed to
be removed as fleet admiral, and someone more sympathetic to Stroud’s own ideas
put in charge. Once the former fleet admiral was safely on Earth, Stroud would
have him arrested and eventually court-martialed for treason. It wouldn’t be
hard to trump up a few charges.

-

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson read the latest messages from Earth. He still had a few friends in
high places in the military, and they were recommending he leave immediately.

“Are all ships
ready to make the jump into hyperspace?”

“Yes,
Admiral,” replied Captain Hastings. “Admiral, once we leave, there will be no
coming back.”

“I know,”
Tomalson said with a deep and regretful sigh. He had never imagined abandoning
Earth. “We all know that, but it’s not safe here for any of us. Give the order.
We jump in ten minutes.”

Tomalson
leaned back in his command chair as he thought about the events of the last few
years. So much had changed on Earth, and the knowledge of other humanoid races
and even aliens had been a shock to most of the people on the planet.

Around him the
command crew worked at their stations, preparing to jump the fleet into
hyperspace. On the main viewscreen, a view of Earth appeared as seen from an
orbiting satellite. Tomalson spent the next few minutes gazing at Earth and
reflecting on what had occurred.

“Jump in ten
seconds,” Captain Hastings reported as she sat down in her command chair.

Tomalson felt
the
Retribution
accelerate and make the jump into hyperspace. On the
viewscreen, the image of Earth faded away, to be replaced by static. With an
ache in his heart, Tomalson wondered if he would ever see the home planet
again.

Prince Brollen
waited patiently as the final repairs to the
Scythe
were completed. His
report of the food species’ possession of dark matter weapons had been received
with annoyance by Prince Ortumad, who promptly sent one of the large
intergalactic transport vessels to the Conclave Habitat to inform the Hive
Queens of this disturbing and possibly dangerous information.

What will
the Queens decide
? asked Military Commander Mardok.
The harvesting of
the food species in Galaxy X241 will be much more costly than we had originally
estimated
.

Prince Brollen
turned toward Mardok, his multifaceted eyes gazing at the military commander.
More
ships will be sent, and the size of our harvesting fleets will be increased.
The dark matter warheads are dangerous to our ships, but our weapons are still
superior
.

Brollen knew
food stocks were running dangerously low in the Vorn habitats, and, to avoid
wholesale deletions of some caste members, this harvest had to occur. There wasn’t
time to turn to one of the other galaxies, which had been harvested in the
past. Galaxy X241 had the abundant food species needed to sustain the Vorn race
for the next several thousand years, until the next galaxy was ready to
harvest.

Shifting his
gaze to the forward viewscreens, Prince Brollen could see myriads of spindle-shaped
cruisers in orbit around the dead planet. Six of the large intergalactic
transport ships circled the planet as well.

We have
sixteen motherships and four Collector Ships here
, Mardok sent
telepathically.
I am sure the other military commanders and princes are
ready to harvest in earnest. Galaxy X241 is rich in food species and will
provide valuable nutrients for our Queens and the rest of our species for many
years to come
.

The food is
good
, agreed Prince Brollen.
We allowed this galaxy extra time to
develop, and it has paid off. Our harvest ships will be full, and the Collector
Ships will have much sorting to do. All the castes will eat well
.

He had kept a
supply of samples from the different food species the
Reaper
had
harvested. He had found several that were quite enjoyable. He had listed which
species these had come from, and, when the opportunity arose, he planned on
adding considerably to his private stock.

Alarms sounded,
and Prince Brollen’s twin antennae twitched at the noise. On the main sensor
display, Vorn ships exited hyperspace.

Switching his
gaze to one of the large viewscreens, he saw numerous intergalactic transport
ships appearing and setting course for the planet.

Fourteen
additional transport ships have exited hyperspace
, Mardok reported
excitedly as he studied the data on a computer screen.
They are loaded with more
motherships, cruisers, and two more Collector Ships
.

It has been
decided then
, sent Prince Brollen confidently.
This is the beginning of
our take-all harvesting force
.

Prince
Lantoll, how soon will the
Scythe
be ready to leave the system on a
harvesting mission
? The
Scythe
was only four thousand kilometers
away and within easy telepathic range.

Two more
days and all the repairs will be finished
, Lantoll replied instantly.
We
are ready for the harvest
.

I expect we
will leave this system shortly, so hurry your repairs. I intend for our fleet
to lead in harvesting when compared to the others
.

It will be
done
, Lantoll replied.

Prince Brollen
was satisfied with Prince Lantoll’s response. Brollen was a senior prince and
the favorite of several Hive Queens as well as being in the court of Queen
Alithe, the ruling Hive Queen. Brollen was high enough up the hierarchy that
his orders would be obeyed. However, Prince Ortumad was even higher, and, with
the newly arrived ships, there might be other high princes.

-

Captain Dreen
of the Lakiam battlecruiser
Basera
was aboard his flagship after meeting
with the fleet officers in charge of Lakiam’s military. The officers had
watched in horror as the videos from the battle over Visth Prime were played
back in detail. The sheer power of the black ships’ weapons was a shock. There
had been a much-heated discussion on how best to defend the Enlightened Worlds,
the Enlightened Worlds’ colonies, as well as Lakiam’s own systems. It had been
a shock to realize there were not enough ships in the fleet to defend all the
systems the Lakiams were responsible for. The Lakiams controlled thirty-two
star systems and had large populations on sixteen habitable words, fourteen
terraformed moons, with mining operations in all thirty-two systems. They were
responsible for defending eighty-seven Enlightened civilizations. Those
eighty-seven civilizations had over 1,400 colonies to protect as well.

“What is the
decision?” asked Alborg, turning away from his tactical station where he had
been running battle simulations. He was determined to find a better way to
defeat the black ships.

Captain Dreen
sat his seven-foot-tall frame in his command chair and let out a deep breath.
“It’s not good. The general consensus is we don’t have enough warships to
protect all the worlds we’re responsible for.”

“The
Destroyers of Worlds are real,” said Sheera Keenol, listening to several media
stations on her comm station. “Scholars are searching the ancient archives for
any information on past appearances. It seems they have made a number of visits
to our galaxy over millions of years.”

Dreen looked
around the circular Command Center. He had everyone’s attention. “It seems a
couple worlds escaped the last appearance of the black ships. They have come
forward with information about what we’re up against.”

“
A
Couple
?”
said Laylem from his sensor console. “Are you saying that only two worlds in
the entire galaxy survived the black ships the last time they put in an
appearance?”

“Two civilized
worlds,” Dreen clarified. “They were Protector Worlds at the time. After the
black ships left, the two planets’ civilizations collapsed. Their galactic wide
economy was gone as well as all their colonies. It took them thousands of years
to recover and venture back into space. They are now Enlightened Worlds, and
the black ship information was held in secret for fear of hampering this
galaxy.”

“I don’t
understand,” said Sheera, looking confused. “Why keep the existence of the
black ships a secret? If we had known, we could have prepared for their
return.”

“They were
afraid of what that one fact would do to the new civilizations rising up across
the galaxy. If the new spacefaring races knew of the black ships, there would
be no striving for enlightenment. Instead all available resources would have
been put into building warships and massive militaries in preparation for the
next return of the Destroyers of Worlds.”

Sheera shook
her head in disbelief. “So they left us defenseless instead?”

“They thought
they had made the right decision, and it was possible the black ships wouldn’t
return.”

Alborg looked disgusted. “What do the black ships want?”

Captain Dreen
looked gravely at his crew. “Food. They consider all higher life-forms a source
of food.”

Sheera’s face
turned a ghastly white in shock. “They want to eat us?”

“Not exactly,”
Dreen answered. “From what we’ve learned, they convert the organic compounds in
our bodies into a food substance they can consume. By harvesting our galaxy,
they can obtain enough food to last for thousands of years.”

“That’s what
happened to Visth Prime and all the Enlightened World colonies that were
stripped of life,” said Laylem, looking ill. “They were turned into food. How
will we stop them?”

“We don’t know
if we can,” confessed Dreen, his eyes narrowing. “All the defensive grids
around our main planets are being reinforced. The construction of dark matter
missiles has been given a high priority. There’s some talk about seeing if it’s
possible to increase the yield to one thousand megatons.”

“A warhead
like that could destroy a planet or, at the very least, knock it from its
orbit,” warned Alborg with a shake of his head. “The warheads are also
difficult to produce and extremely expensive.”

“Unfortunately
it’s the only weapon we have that seems to work against the black ships. We
have to overload their shields with energy in order to cause any damage.”

“What are our
orders?” asked Sheera.

“Our fleet is
being substantially reinforced, and we’ll carry twice the black matter
hypermissiles than we normally do. The plan is to find a black fleet and
destroy it, which might buy us the time to finish fortifying our worlds and
find a better weapon to use against the enemy.”

Sheera looked
at a viewscreen showing Lakiam. The planet was blue-white with several large
oceans and three major landmasses, the home of the Lakiam race. “We can’t save
everything, can we?”

Captain Dreen
slowly shook his head. “No, we’ll suffer some losses, probably major ones.”

What Dreen
didn’t tell his crew was that a victory over the black ships was considered
essential. The survival of his fleet was a low priority if he could
substantially damage or defeat the Destroyers of Worlds in battle.

-

Above Kubitz,
High Profiteer Creed nodded in satisfaction. Four small Marsten Profiteer clans
had agreed to provide ships for his raid against Earth. Dacroni Clan Leader Jarls
had driven a hard bargain but, after negotiations were finished, had agreed to
bring a substantial fleet of battleships on the venture. Creed was forced to
put up twenty million credits as an advance payment to the Dacroni mercenary.

“The raid on
Earth had better be profitable,” muttered Second Profiteer Lantz. “You’ve spent
nearly all of our credit reserves on this. If it fails, we’ll be subject to the
will of the Controllers for lack of funds to continue to operate our fleet.”

High Profiteer
Creed turned toward Lantz. The entire crew of his flagship was concerned over
the credits Creed had spent. “We have our new ships, and our fleet is more
powerful than ever before. The four clans, which have agreed to accompany us to
Earth, have put up forty vessels. Along with Jarls’s battleships, this raid is
assured of success. Intelligence from our spies on Earth indicates a fracture
in one of their leading governments. The escort cruiser
Balisk
just
returned and reports only ten warships defend the planet—four battleships and
six battlecruisers.”

“Don’t forget
about Fleet Admiral Vickers.”

“His ships
won’t matter,” Creed responded, looking at Lantz. “Earth is far enough away
from Newton that our battle and raid will be over before Vickers can respond.”
Even if Vickers did respond, Creed was certain he had the ships and firepower
to defeat the aggravating fleet admiral once and for all.

-

Lantz nodded
but didn’t reply. He saw no point in angering the High Profiteer by reminding
him they had lost nearly every battle that involved Fleet Admiral Vickers. If
Vickers somehow reached Earth before the raid was over, it could change
everything. If they returned from this raid with little or no gold, his days as
a big player at the Kubitz pleasure houses would come to an abrupt end. Lantz
had already decided he would go on one final spending spree before the fleet
left on its raid.

-

Prince Brollen
watched the main viewscreens of the
Reaper
as the ship dropped from
hyperspace in its target system. For now the decision had been made to leave
the primary worlds of the food species alone. They would harvest the colony
worlds instead, which would still furnish a plentiful bounty for the Vorn race.
By harvesting the colony worlds first, it would substantially weaken the
primary worlds, making them more susceptible to Vorn attack and eventual
harvesting.

All ships
have exited hyperspace
, reported Military Commander Mardok.

Prince Brollen
nodded. His new fleet consisted of his own flagship, the
Reaper
, two
other motherships, the
Scythe
and
Hetel
, and six hundred
cruisers. The orders from the Hive Queens had been very simple: harvest as many
of the secondary worlds as possible, and then the entire Vorn fleet would move
on the primary worlds of Galaxy X241.

-

The Vorn fleet
entered the System of Ralla, a colony world of the Bollons, a race with a
distinct avian heritage. They were warm-blooded with very short feathers
covering their bodies. Their heads were humanoid, yet their mouths formed a
beak but rounder than most avian species. The Bollons still possessed their
wings and were capable of flight over short distances. They were an Enlightened
Race and had been for over two hundred thousand years. The Bollons controlled
twenty star systems with fourteen inhabited worlds, with a total population in
excess of forty billion. Their cities consisted of extremely tall and slim
towers that reached up into the clouds on their worlds.

The System of
Ralla contained one habitable world with automated mining operations on several
of the moons of the system. Four planets orbited the K-Class star with only a
small asteroid field between the orbits of the third and fourth planets.

What’s
showing on our sensors
? demanded Prince Brollen as he watched his fleet
gather protectively around the three motherships. He was anxious to begin the
harvest as he had not tasted this food species before.

Military
Commander Mardok checked with several other Vorn in the Command Center before turning toward the prince.
We’re not detecting any warships and only a small
defensive grid surrounding the planet. A number of what appear to be cargo and
passenger ships are in the system. Some are already jumping into hyperspace and
fleeing
.
Our fleet must have been spotted.