When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony (35 page)

Command Bridge, TSS
Terra
, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020

“
That should do it,
” commed Lieutenant Rrower. “
There should be power to the laser tracking system. I’m coming back.
” Movement was difficult. With all of the station’s power being transferred to the
Terra
, there were no lights, no heat and no gravity throughout the ship or replicator. It was almost like being in space, except there were walls to run into. If the suits hadn’t had external lights, he would have been lost inside the ship. Although it wasn’t completed yet, it was still over a mile long.

Bridge,
Ssselipsssiss Ship
Backstabber
, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020

“Their shields have failed,” said the sensor technician, as another missile exploded close aboard, shaking the ship.

“I’ve had enough of their missiles,” said Captain Rissser. “
Kill them n...!
”

Before he could complete the thought, there was a flash, and a tornado howled through the bridge.

Command Bridge, TSS
Terra
, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020

“
We got them!
” Lieutenant Rrower roared as the two four-meter aperture grasers finally fired. Calvin didn’t know if it was delight, defiance or some other emotion, but the roar itself brought shivers down his spine. He imagined it was the kind of roar that made early cavemen huddle closer to their fire, hoping to keep the predators of the night at bay.

“That was
awesome!
” the Mrowry officer continued, as he looked at the damage done to the ship on the long range viewer. “We got it right through their bridge!”

“Of course we did,” said the
Terra’s
AI. “That was where I was aiming. If you wanted me to hit it someplace else, you should have said so.”

Bridge,
Ssselipsssiss Ship
Backstabber
, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020

The executive officer looked and saw that
Captain Rissser was gone. Not just ‘gone’ as in deceased, but ‘gone’ as in no longer on the bridge. Whatever weapon had fired from the battleship had passed right through his command chair and vaporized him as it passed from one side of the ship to the other. Well, not completely, he thought as he looked on in horror. The captain’s magnetic boots and about six inches of his legs were still attached to the deck. That was all that was left of him. Were it not for the magnetic boots, that part would have gone overboard as all of the air on the bridge went screaming out the 12’ holes that had suddenly appeared on both sides of it. The defensive systems technician had failed to strap in and was sliding across the floor, inexorably drawn toward one of the holes. As he raced toward the hole, he was able to get a hand on the weapons technician’s seat, momentarily stopping his travel. The force of breaking his slide was so great that it pulled his shoulder from the socket, and he wasn’t able to maintain his hold on the chair through the pain.

“
Help me!
” he commed. Before the weapons technician could grab him, the defensive systems technician lost his grip and was sucked screaming from the ship.

The executive officer looked back to Captain Rissser’s legs, where his green blood was starting to
boil off in the growing vacuum. He had to look away again as he felt lunch start to make its way back up from his stomach.

“
Sir!
” commed the damage control technician. “
We’ve got another hole just like this one that goes through the galley. At least 20 people have been lost overboard!
”

The executive officer looked back at Captain Rissser’s legs. They couldn’t take any more of those
hits. Their shields were down, and they were defenseless. If Rissser were here, the executive officer knew he would have detonated the core of the ship, rather than be taken captive. Unfortunately, only the commanding officer could order the self-destruction of the ship. While the XO knew that he was now the commanding officer of the
Backstabber
with Rissser’s demise, he didn’t have the codes to self-destruct; only the commanding officer had them. They had perished with Rissser.

“
Open up a link to the Mrowry,
” he said finally. “
Tell them that we surrender.
” Then he threw up inside his suit.

Command Bridge,
TSS
Terra
, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020

Lieutenant Rrower roared again, sending more shivers down Calvin’s spine. “They surrendered?” he asked. “They never surrender!”

“That’s great,” said Calvin, “but now the hard part begins.”

“What could be harder than taking out that battlecruiser?” asked Lieutenant Rrower.
“I think I ran at least five miles of cabling, myself.”

“
It wasn’t even 500 feet of cabling,” replied Calvin, “so stop whining. What I mean is that now we have to hook up this replicator and tow it out of here,” replied Calvin.

“Tow th
e replicator out of here?” asked Rrower. “
With what?
”

“We’ll tow it out of here with our ship
if we have to,” Calvin replied.

“It can’t be done,” said Lieutenant Rrower. “No one’s ever towed one of these with a cruiser.”

“
Can’t
be done?” asked Calvin. “Or, has never been done before?”

“I guess I don’t know if it can’t be done,” replied the Mrowry
, sounding thoughtful. “I can tell you that no one has ever been stupid enough to try it. A cruiser’s just not big enough to tow it.”

“
I don’t think I’m stupid, just that our need is great,” said Calvin. “At any moment, more lizards could come through their stargate and overwhelm us. We’ve got to get this out of here now!”

“There is no
written procedure for a cruiser to tow a replicator,” noted the
Terra’s
AI, “and it is expressly forbidden to tow a replicator with a ship still being built in it. I have to agree that it is not a good idea to try it, as it is likely that I will sustain damage in the attempt. Although it is beneath my station to be used as a tug, if you could just give the replicator enough time to finish my assembly, I will help you pull it afterward.”

“Thanks,” Calvin said. “I never intended to pull it with a cruiser, anyway. There’s
just no need.” He smiled. “Not when we have
two
cruisers...”

* * * * *

Conference Room,
Emperor’s Paw
, Kepler-78 System, August 27, 2020

“Thank you for coming,”
welcomed Captain Yerrow. “It seemed like we should have a long talk away from any prying Psiclopes eyes.” The ships were at the stargate out of the Kepler-78 system, waiting for the battleship to be finished. As awkward as it was for the two cruisers to tow the replicator to the stargate, no one knew what stresses would be put on the battleship to go through the stargate still attached to it. With only two days until the battleship’s completion, it seemed better to wait until it was finished. While they were waiting, Captain Yerrow had invited the Terrans over to the
Emperor’s Paw
for a council of war. All of the senior officers had come, except for the
Gulf’s
XO, who was supervising the surrender of the lizard ship. It would be his new command, with the Mrowry operations officer as his executive officer. Between manning the battleship and putting together the prize party that was gathering up all of the Ssselipsssiss on their battlecruiser, both ships were running dangerously low on manning, especially since the Mrowry had lost over 1/3 of their crew in the fighting in Ross 248. They had picked up a few of the crewmen from the other Mrowry ships in the system, but after their long running battle, there hadn’t been that many to find.

“Thank you for inviting us,” replied Captain Griffin, “I’m not sure what you mean by
their ‘prying eyes,’ but I know that there are a lot of things that they haven’t told us. Those stealth ships that you have were a huge surprise. Those are just one of the many things that the Psiclopes have never mentioned to us.”

“
They’re not really stealth ships,” said the
Paw’s
XO, Commander Andowwn. “They just use a module that allows them to absorb energy, kind of like your combat suits. Unfortunately, it takes nearly all of the energy available to power the absorption module, so there is nothing left for weapons. The module also covers almost all of the attachment points where the space fighters would normally mount missiles, so there’s no place to attach them.”

“With regard to the Psiclopes not telling you something,” added
Captain Yerrow, “I believe that you will find that is the norm, not the exception. Their society is based on the collection of information. For beings that can live thousands of years, knowledge is not only power, but wealth. Why do you think they live on planets such as yours?”

“I thought it was to study us and keep us safe,” said Sara.

This comment seemed to be hilarious, as all of the Mrowry howled in a manner that the humans had never seen before. The longer they howled, the redder and redder Sara’s face became. When Captain Yerrow had calmed down enough to speak again, he said, “I’m sorry, but that was the funniest thing that any of us have heard in a long time. Study you? Yes, they study you, so that they can learn all about you...what you have and what you need...so that they can obtain it for you and make the most money that they can for themselves. The only reason that they’d keep you safe is if their own lives depended on it. The idea of conflict is horrible to them, because then they might lose their millennia-long lives. They care no more for you than they would a Skarg.”  The Terrans’ implants translated the Skarg as a predatory worm from the Mrowry home planet.

“But they gave us a ship,” said Sara, provoking another round of laughter.

“You think they gave you a ship?” asked Captain Yerrow. “They may have
told
you that the ship is yours, but you can bet that it works for the Psiclopes.”

“No,” said Captain
Griffin, “the AI does what I tell it to do.”

“I’m sure it does,” agreed Captain Yerrow, “as long as you ask it to do things that are within its mission protocols.” He thought for a second and then said, “If it really is your ship, show me its papers.”

“What papers?” asked Captain Griffin, causing a third round of laughter.

“I like these Terrans,” said the
Paw’s
XO to its CO. “They make me laugh like I haven’t laughed since this war began.”

“Indeed,” replied Captain Yerrow. He looked back at Captain Griffin and said, “All ships have documentation establishing ownership, just like any other property.
In your case, the Psiclopes probably petitioned for ownership of the vessel from the courts. The Eldive, who owned it previously, were all gone so the courts would have let them have it. Possession
is
3/4 of the law, after all. Trust me. There’s paperwork on the ship, and whoever’s name is on that paperwork is the person whom the ship’s AI
really
works for, regardless of what the Psiclopes tell you.”

“
Out of curiosity, what have they told you about us or the Alliance of Civilizations?” asked the Mrowry XO.

“They told us that you are one of the founders of the alliance and one of the good guys in it,” said
the ambassador. “They also said that the alliance had broken up because of the pressures of too many hostile races and a disagreement on how to appease them.”

“
Like all of their lies, there is some truth to that,” said Captain Yerrow, “just enough to make it believable. It is true that we were one of the founders of the alliance, and that we are one of the ‘good’ civilizations, if being good means having honor and integrity. The lies start to enter when you talk about the breakup of the alliance. While there
are
a large number of hostile and aggressive races in the galaxy, the alliance generally had them all contained. Until the Psiclopes started selling them our military secrets. All of a sudden, our enemies had technology as good as our own...because it
was
our own. They knew our military deployments. They knew where our ships were and when was the best time to attack. It took us a while, but we finally realized the source of our troubles; it was one of our own selling them our secrets.”

He shook his head. “
Rather than continue to deal with them in an alliance,” he continued, “my father walked out. When he did, so too did most of the other good nations, leaving the hostile and aggressive nations to band together. We are undermanned and don’t have enough ships to fight all of them at the same time. The other nations that stand by our side are in similar shape. We are all about to be overwhelmed.”

“That is why we were so excited when you came to our aid,” added the XO. “
You were obviously brave, as you came out alone in that ship, and we thought that you might be our saviors. We hoped for a fleet big enough to turn the tide...we hoped for a lot more than just a 3,000 year old cruiser. No offense, we just needed more. You are obviously brave and seem like excellent allies, but we cannot take on any more obligations; we cannot defend your nation for you. We are already stretched too thin.”

“What do you mean, ‘that ship
’?” asked Captain Griffin.

“No offense,” replied Captain Yerrow, “but look at it. It’s ancient. There’s no doubting your bravery if you came out all alone in it, not once but twice. When we saw it, we just figured that you were the advance scout for a bigger fleet...not that you
were
the entire fleet.”

“
Even knowing that there is no aid to be had,” said the ambassador, “we are interested in deeper ties with you. While we may not be a force yet, we will work to develop the kind of navy that will be beneficial to both of our nations.”

“That is one of the reasons that I offered you the replicator,” replied Captain Yerrow.
“We may not be able to help you in battle with the Drakuls, but hopefully we can give you the means to help yourselves. If we can get you to stand on your own feet, it will secure one of our borders.”

“We’ve done the same thing in our early explorations
,” noted Calvin. “We have tried to develop the civilizations that we’ve come across. They might not be ready to fight in space yet, but if they can provide the resources to build equipment, that allows more of our people to shift over to military applications.”

“I think that is smart,” said Captain Yerrow, “which is why we
did the same thing with you. Is there anything else you need?”

“
You know what would be really helpful?” asked Captain Griffin. “A map of explored space and some sort of galactic encyclopedia to see who all of the players are. That way, we wouldn’t fumble around here so blindly. It would be nice to know where we can go, and the areas we should avoid.”

The Mrowry laughed
, again although this time it appeared to be more of a wry laugh. “They didn’t give you any of that?” asked Captain Yerrow. “How did they expect you to...never mind, of course they didn’t give it to you. Knowledge is power, and that would be something really powerful. They probably cleared your ship’s ephemeris, so that you wouldn’t have any data on any of the star systems beyond what you explored yourself. Right?”

Now it was the Terrans’ turn for a wry laugh. “How did you know?” asked Captain Griffin.

“It just seemed like something they would do,” said Captain Yerrow. “Yes, we will provide that. It will aid in your strategic and operational awareness.”

“Did they tell you that you needed a planetary government in order for them to tell you their secrets?” asked the
Paw’s
XO.

“Many times,” replied Calvin.

“Typical,” replied the
Paw’s
XO. “They really couldn’t give a shit about your form of government; they always use that distraction as a way of withholding information until you have something of value that you can trade for it. Having a planetary government just lets them sell things to you at a higher mark-up.”

“Despite their stated objections, they actually like it when there is conflict in the system,” said Captain Yerrow. “They have some kind of motto that goes along the lines of, ‘where there is chaos, there is profit.’”

“Those fuckers...” Calvin heard Master Chief mutter from behind him.

“You know,” said Captain Yerrow, “you wouldn’t even have a problem with the Drakuls if it weren’t for the Psiclopes.”

“What?” asked several of the Terrans simultaneously.

“You didn’t know?” asked Captain Yerrow. “The Drakuls
were eradicated from this galaxy. All of them were killed, and the race was no more...until some imbecilic Psiclops scientist opened up a gateway to another universe and let them back into ours. The ones that are currently threatening your planet are ones that came through and reestablished themselves in this galaxy.”

“They mentioned the Churther Box,” said Captain Griffin, “and the fact that ‘some Drakuls’ came through it. They neglected to mention that was how the Drakuls got here.
”

“Some Drakuls?” Captain Yerrow asked as the Mrowry began laughing again. “Yes, some came through...if your definition of ‘some’ is several thousand. About 150 years ago they came through and quickly took over the city that Churther lived in,
killing Churther and his assistants, and then they captured the spaceport outside of the city. There were only a couple of cruisers based on that planet, but they got both of them and escaped into space. We don’t know where they went, but about 40 years ago, they started making attacks back into civilized space. They must have taken over an industrialized planet, because 20 years ago, they reappeared in force. The Archons have been fighting them ever since.”

“Um, who are the Archons?” asked Sara.

“They haven’t even told you about the races of the Alliance of Civilizations?” asked Captain Yerrow.

“
No,” replied Captain Griffin, “not so much. They told us that the alliance had existed, but it fell apart. They never told us who the good races were or who the bad ones were.”

“Of course they wouldn’t,” said the
Paw’s
XO, shaking his head.

“
There are three main races that seek to continue the legacy of the alliance,” said Captain Yerrow, “the Mrowry, the Archons and the Aesir. The Hooolongs were also allied, but they took the life-prolonging treatment like the Psiclopes and are now worthless; they are now too afraid of death or injury to risk themselves. There are also a few minor races with a couple of star systems of their own that seek to assist us; we try to help each other out when we are able.”

“
Lately, though, that hasn’t been very often,” said the XO.

“No, it hasn’t,” agreed Captain Yerrow with a sigh. “Arrayed against us are a number of hostile races. Some just want to take a system or two and increase their influence.
So far, anyway. Others, like the Ssselipsssiss and Drakuls, want nothing short of complete control of every system in the galaxy for them to rule as they will. Unfortunately, there are as many of them as there are of us, and we started out at a disadvantage. They knew all of our secrets and our deployments and were able to destroy many of our fleets before most of us even knew we were at war. We are fighting the Ssselipsssiss, the Archons are fighting the Drakuls, and the Aesir are fighting the Teufelings.”

Captain Yerrow shook his head. “We really needed the battleship to help our fleet, but without you, it would have been lost, along with the replicator. Hopefully, you’ll do something good with them.”