Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (25 page)

Ron-Dar ordered the squadron to load their missile ports with the old two stage penetrators which had hornets and watched as his ships approached the huge harvesters; they then fired 90 penetrators at each of the twenty mile long ships. They started blowing up like a string of giant firecrackers and in less than 15 seconds all twenty had been totally destroyed.

The new hornets were keeping the plant missiles off his ships as they passed thru the Plant squadrons but Tag looked at his captain and said, “Time to leave.” The formation was slaved to Tags ship so whichever direction Ron-Dar directed his ship the others moved automatically with it. The strike force was moving at full speed and just as a huge swarm of missiles approached them, Ron-Dar jumped his formation away. “It looks like your new device worked well,” Tag said.

Lt. Rena said, “We give up a lot of our advantage not being able to jump inside the jump limit. Has anyone come up with a way to counter that frequency they’re broadcasting?”

Ron-Dar looked at his jump officer and said, “Not yet. The gravity of the star coupled with the frequency work together just enough to dampen the resonance of our drives. We tried to find a frequency that would eliminate the one they are using but they are broadcasting at such a high power that nothing has worked so far.”

Tag looked at his display and said, “Then there isn’t much we can do to save the inhabitants. All we can really do is to try to make things miserable for the Plant fleet but it would be suicide to move in toward the planet.”

“What about the other world?” Can we do anything there?” Ron-Dar asked.

“Admiral Kelly went to see if we could support them against the Algeans but that species is totally antisocial. They attacked his ships and even though he didn’t fight back, they refused to acknowledge our communications and continued their attack. It appears they are just as violent as the Plants but lack their technology. We have left a passive Coronado sensor in their system to give us a feed when the Algean invasion starts.” Tag thought a moment and then said, “We’re probably wasting our time here except for making the Plants keep their new ships here to defend the harvesting of the planet. It looks like they will be here for the next five years before they move on to the next planet. If the other planet takes as long then the Dremel should be moved and safe before they could move against them. Captain, why don’t you target another group of their ships and let’s keep letting them know we aren’t going away.”

Ron-Dar looked at his display coming from the remote sensor for a good target and Tag leaned back in his chair and ordered a bag of popcorn. Mikado should have his fleet updated with the new beams and penetrators shortly and then we can start to reduce the size of this fleet.

Ron-Dar looked up and said, “All ships prepare for group jump in twenty sems. We will fire two volleys of penetrators and immediately jump away. On my mark, 3,2,1, jump.”

The five ships entered normal space in the middle of the bulge the plants were forming at the jump limit for the harvesters to jump from and fired two volleys of penetrators. The Plant ships could not fire back at them for fear of hitting their own ships across from them. Before they could target the SR ships with piloted missiles, they had jumped away. The Plant Half fleet Leader pounded his chair again and asked his sensor leader, “How long were they in normal space?”

“Only four interals, Fleet Leader.”

The Fleet Leader stared at his display a few moments and then turned on his communicator, “Attention all ships, launch two layers of power missiles and form the bulge with one layer facing in and one layer facing out. As soon as a star drive is detected the closest missiles will attack immediately. Form the layers now.”

Ron-Dar watched the feed from the stealth probe and leaned back in his chair. He turned and said, “It will be too risky now to make any further attack, Sir. There are more than a million anti-matter missiles in that bulge.”

Tag was also watching his display and shook his head. “No one can say these weeds are dumb. If we jump into that bulge to go after their harvesters, then those missiles are close enough to hit us just as we emerge from null space. Well, it’s going to take some time for them to fill up some new ships. I don’t think they will come outside the jump limit to challenge us, so I guess our work is done.”

“Maybe not sir,” Ron-Dar said.

Tag arched his eyebrows and said, “What else do you have in mind, Captain?”

“Those missiles are rather close to each other and I think we can jump far enough away to launch a full volley of hornets at them before they could reach our launch site. The hornets would have no effect on the ships they were using to form the bulge because of their screens but those missiles don’t have a screen. I suspect that we might cause a chain reaction and probably destroy them all and any harvesters close to them. If we brought more ships in we could possibly launch enough hornets to destroy all of those missiles.”

Tag looked at Ron-Dar and smiled. He had a feeling similar to the one he used to have when Kosiev would come up with a new idea. For a moment he missed his friend but then he knew that he had a new commander that could step right in and work closely with him. “That is an excellent idea; however, I don’t want to waste it on just those missiles. I’d like to get the next group of harvesters. We’ll have the probe to send us a feed and we’ll plan our attack with their exit from the planet. Let’s go home, Captain. The other four ships can also go home until we notify them to join us.”

Ron-Dar turned to his com and began issuing orders. Tag leaned back in his chair and thought, “It will be good to see Danielle and Rose. I miss them very much.”

Tag then jumped straight in his chair when he heard Rose say in his mind, “I have also missed you, too, Daddy.”

He didn’t even know she was listening to him, so he thought back at her, “Honey, I thought I told you not to go in someone else’s mind without permission.”

“I didn’t, Daddy. I heard you say you missed me. I just answered you.”

‘OK, Darling,” Tag thought back at her. “I love you and I’ll see you later today.”

“I love you, too. I’ll tell Mommy you’re coming home. I’m so happy.”

Tag could feel her excitement and he planned to talk with Danielle about Rose hearing his thoughts even when she wasn’t in his mind. Their daughter was showing more and more psychic ability every time he saw her. She would soon be six and she was so far ahead of where he had been at her age. Unlike him, she seemed to fully understand her skills and how to use them. He thought for a moment and remembered that he didn’t even know he was psychic until he was seven years old after a game of hide and seek. Rose had the benefit of two parents that knew they possessed psychic ability and Tgon-Gee, who made it clear to anyone that would listen that she had an aura stronger than anyone that had ever been seen by the Glod. Tag left the bridge and went to his room and thought about what to do about the Plant’s attack. As long as they controlled everything inside the jump limit, their numbers would overwhelm his ships. Perhaps Dorg and Mikado had come up with an idea. He hit his com and said, “Captain Ron-Dar, please schedule a meeting with Admirals Dorg and Mikado for tomorrow morning.”

“Yes Sir.”

Tag went to his room and lied down on his bed. He closed his eyes and thought about his wife and looked forward to seeing her. He fell to sleep immediately.

Rose smiled and went back to her toys. She had helped her father relax with soothing psychic pulses and stayed with him until he went to sleep. “Now where did I leave my tea pot?” she thought. She looked at one of her stuffed bunnies and it got up and left the room to look for it. She giggled and checked on her mother briefly to see if anything interesting was happening. Her life was full and she enjoyed every minute of it.

T
ag, Mikado, Chen, and Dorg were sitting in the library at the castle on Ross discussing possible strategies on how to attack the plant ships at the new planet being harvested. Leila came in and said, “Please excuse me for interrupting your meeting but I have two scientists that want to speak with you about the Algean frequency ships.”

Tag looked at her and said, “Send them in.” He looked at Dorg and he just shrugged and nodded.

Gerald Nelson and Anita Lea entered the room and Anita said, “Please excuse the interruption and I apologize for Colonel McAllister not being able to come but we think we might have a way to get around the Plant’s dampening frequency.”

All four of Humanity’s military leaders sat straighter in their chairs and Dorg said, “Please tell us what you have.”

Anita turned to the old scientist with her and said, “This is Gerald Nelson who is one of our top scientists on jump mechanics. He has made a discovery that you might find very interesting.” She sat down and looked at the scientist.

“Gentlemen, I had a meeting with the Director, Misty Nicole, who wanted a way to get around the Plant dampening frequency and quite frankly, I had no answers for her. I had to explain in basic language how our star drives operate and she posed a question that took me by surprise. She asked me what the frequency was for null space that our ships go thru to jump.”

The four officers looked at each other and all of them immediately could see where the conversation was headed. Tag said, “Tell me you found out.”

Gerald smiled and said, “We did. I find it totally remarkable that no one had ever asked that question before and it took someone that really knew nothing about jump mechanics to ask the simple question that took our knowledge to an entirely new level. We discovered that null space has no frequency.”

Mikado looked puzzled, “How does that help us?”

Gerald turned and opened his display and looked at them with a smile and said, “Because the Plant dampening frequency prevents a star drive from resonating. To jump into null space all you have to do is set the screen of the ship to not resonate at any frequency; that ship will then jump into null space and stay there. Since the Plant dampening field is designed to prevent resonating of a Star Drive screen, it should actually make it easier to make a screen resonate at no frequency.”

Dorg looked grim and said, “Have you confirmed that it is the size of an atom and if you have, what happens to the ship that goes in there?”

“Yes, Admiral, it is the size of an atom and it rejects rather forcefully whatever goes in instantaneously.” Dorg raised his shoulders and Gerald continued, “The no frequency screen of the ship is immediately stripped upon emergence into null space and the resonance of the screen surrounding an object inside the null screen is where the object will jump.”

Tag looked puzzled and said, “Why don’t you explain how you think we can use this.”

“We have to use two screens on our ships. The outer screen will instantly go to no frequency at the same moment that the inner screen will be set to resonate at whatever point of emergence the ship needs to appear. They must be set with no less than one tenth of a second between the settings. The no frequency screen must energize first which will throw the ship into null space. It takes about two tenths of a second to fully leave normal space and that is when the second screen will be activated inside the outer screen so that when the first screen is stripped in null space the ship will then appear at the coordinates of the second screen.

Chen cocked his head and asked, “What happens if the second screen isn’t activated?”

Anita looked at the group and shook her head. “The object in null space with no screen when the first is stripped will be destroyed totally; normal atoms cannot exist in null space. The best we have been able to determine is that all the atoms of the object will be totally stripped, broken apart, and equally distributed thru out the universe which may account for the random atoms scattered throughout space. The only thing that prevents it from happening normally is a resonating screen. Without a frequency for normal space to send the object, well, you don’t want to be on a ship that finds itself in that predicament.”

“Have you tried your idea on a real ship?” Tag asked.

“Yes we have and it works. We have not tried it inside a jump limit with an Algean dampening field operating but we would like for you to allow us to send a ship to see. All of our estimates point to it being able to jump in and out of that environment.”

Chen said, “I will take my ship in.” The other three started to object and Chen said, “Gentlemen, you all out rank me and are much more valuable to the war effort. You know it only makes sense for me to do it.”

There was silence and Tag said, “Maybe, but we’re going to do this so that whoever goes in stands a chance to escape if anything goes wrong and also try to get the Plants to strengthen their position in hopes that it does work. We will attack the Plant Fleet at the new planet just outside the jump limit on the planet side of the sun. That should draw their ships to our location. I’m sure the frequency ships will be broadcasting and the Plant ships on the sun side should jump around to our side to support their main fleet. Once we see them arrive, that is when we will jump in to the sun side away from the planet and try the new screens.”

Dorg looked at Tag and said, “How many ships will you use in the attack?”