Defending Earth-Discovery Means Death (23 page)

Matt shrugged, “The computers in the ships and in their armor can handle that issue. I’ve wondered for a long time why we’ve only used telepathic pilots and warriors.” Everyone stared at Matt and then started talking over each other. Rose watched the meeting on the display in her personal quarters and smiled. The lowest ranking officer in the room saw it first. She looked at the Nudge’s Watch List and saw the lieutenant was number two. Now that was interesting. Let’s see if he could get the others on board. She looked up and thought, “I had no idea we had this many ships in our inventory.”

“I don’t think anyone does.”

“You are right. This is something that needs attention.” She thought about the waste of more than two hundred million light ships.

T
he Welken Ruler looked at the Leader of the Audon on his monitor and shook his head, “The new High Leader has me concerned.”

“Why?”

“I was asked not to reveal our conversation before the meeting but I’m beginning to think that she is not really aware of the danger we’re facing with the Death Feeders.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I hate to admit that I am.”

“If it comes down to a vote of confidence, we can replace her.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that. Let’s wait and see what she has to say before we do anything rash.”

“Do you think you can get the votes if it does?”

“The Myot and Johan will vote with me. The Goran will side with the Humans and the tie breaker will be you.”

“What about the Leaders from M-84?”

“They still don’t have voting rights.”

“You can count on me if what you say is accurate.”

“I was hoping you would say that.”

“I’ll see you at the meeting.”

“I look forward to seeing you again.”

• • •

Rose entered the conference room and found the attendees were still arguing. They saw her move to her chair and they became silent and went to their chairs. Rose smiled, “Well, what did you decide?”

Admiral Mandel stood up and raised his hands, “High Leader, we’ve not been able to come up with an answer that all of us could agree on.”

Rose stared at him and smiled, “So you tried to logically come to a conclusion?”

Mandel opened his mouth to respond and, after a brief moment of looking around the room, he closed it. He shook his head and then nodded.

“What appears to be the issue that has all of you stuck?”

Mandel tilted his head, “All of our communications between our ships is done telepathically by the forces flying them. Even the ground forces use telepathy to stay in contact with their leaders.”

Rose pressed a button on her console and Admiral Ambrose appeared on the huge wall monitor. “Admiral, have you sent the local regiment out to Commodore Hughes Squadron?”

“I have, High Leader.”

“Have the two drops started using them as the drop forces?”

“They have.”

“What’s the result?”

“It appears they are performing just as well as our naval drop forces.”

Mandel shook his head, “How are they communicating with their commanders?”

“The armor’s computer is handling their communications. The warrior’s thoughts are picked up by the computer and sent where they’re directed.”

Matt stood up and said, “What about the Feeders detecting their presence?”

Ambrose smiled, “The Device used to block their senses also works with non-telepathic beings. The Feeders did not sense their presence during the two drops.”

Rose smiled, “Thank you, Admiral.” Ambrose nodded and disappeared from the monitor. Rose looked at the attendees, “Does this information make a difference in your findings?”

The Intelligence Captain said, “It was thought that only the new generations of advanced telepaths were capable of not being seen by the Feeders.”

“That’s true, if they did not have the screening device. But they do have it now and the device prevents the Feeders from sensing them.”

The Captain looked around the room and then turned back to Rose, “Why hasn’t anyone tried this before?”

Rose stared at him and her eyes narrowed, “Because everyone in our civilization is too scared to try anything new against an enemy that they’re scared out of their wits at confronting. We’ve refused to try anything new that might lead to our discovery. Everyone is fixated on the principle that discovery means death.”

Mandel looked at Rose, “That is a real fear, High Leader. What about the communications issue?”

“We’ve been using telepathic computers since Christopher Stone had the first one modified by the Silver Ships. That was centuries ago. Those computers can handle any telepathic communications that need to be done. It doesn’t take a telepath to make the connection and the computer is probably safer because it can shut down its broadcasting circuit to avoid being detected by individual or linked Feeders.”

“What are you going to do with this information?”

“For the moment, everyone in this room is going to keep it secret. If any of you reveal what you’ve learned in this meeting, I will have you incarcerated until I get over my anger at your blunder in revealing it.” Rose paused, “Admiral, how many Welken Instructors do we have at the Academy on Eden?”

Mandel looked at his staff and the Captain said, “Twenty-five, Sir.”

Rose nodded, “I want all of them taken from the Academy and transported to our top secret manufacturing facility here on Earth. They will be put through the simulator training on our new ships and fitted for the new Armor.”

“What are you going to do?”

Rose looked at the officers that had been directed to attend the meeting, “After they complete the training, and it had better be done within five days, they will be assigned to one of the officers present and they will skip out to the Feeder’s Search Fleets and launch an attack on them.” Mandel started shaking his head and Rose smiled, “This will remain top secret and will not be discussed by any of you in this room. Is that clear?”

The attendees said together, “Yes, High Leader.”

“Further, every one of the officers present are to be detached from their current unit and will report directly to me starting now.” Rose looked at Sam, “You will also go through the simulator training with the Welken and will participate in the attack.” Sam’s eyes went wide and then he nodded.

Matt raised his hand, “I brought my Weapons Officer with me. What about her?”

“All of the weapon operators and Second-in Commands will go with Admiral Mandel and complete the advanced tactical simulation course on commanding fleet maneuvers.” She looked at Mandel, “They will complete that course in five days.”

Everyone stared at her and Mandel lowered his head and looked at her through his eyebrows, “What are you intending to do, High Leader?”

Rose smiled, “Try to give our civilizations a back bone. Admiral, find quarters for the attendees and keep them quarantined from all Alliance Personnel.”

“Yes Sir.”

Rose smiled, “Lt. Coronado.”

“Yes Sir.”

“You will command the attack.”

Matt’s eyes went wide and he looked around the room at the superior officers sitting around him. He turned to Rose and shook his head, “Sir, I’m the most junior officer present.”

“I am not accustomed to having my orders challenged, Lieutenant. For the duration of this mission, you will assume the rank of Fleet Admiral and I will bust anyone out of the service that doesn’t follow your orders!” Rose looked around the room and they could all see her anger, “Is that clear!?”

The officers all shouted, “Yes High Leader.”

Rose stood up, “Get out of here and do what you’ve been ordered. Be back here in five days to report on your mission.” Rose stood up and left the room.

Ethan walked up to Matt and looked him in the eyes, “You will not be getting any problems from me. If I can help you, let me know.”

“Thank you, Commodore. I can use your help.” Ethan nodded and walked over to Jackson. Mandel walked up to Matt and Matt said, “I should have kept my mouth shut.”

Mandel smiled, “Too late, now you’re in it up to your eyeballs. Come with me and I’ll introduce you to the Welken when they arrive.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Sorry, but you outrank me, Sir.” Matt rolled his eyes and Mandel smiled, “At least you know you’re in over your head and that should help you make this happen.”

Matt looked at his new weapon’s officer, “Complete the simulation as quickly as possible. I can use your help.”

She stared at him and smiled, “I’ll do that, Sir.” Matt walked off and Eddy shook her head. Boy did things happen fast in the service. She had no idea things like this could take place. She didn’t know that everyone in the room had the same thought.

Mandel walked out of the room and had to admit that he really didn’t like the new High Leader initially. But she took control and kept it. If what she was doing worked out, it would have an immediate impact on the Aliance. Then he stopped in his tracks. He had no idea why the Naval Officers selected to attend the meeting were chosen. He thought about all of them and couldn’t find a common denominator that connected them. He shook his head and reserved judgment. The next five days should prove to be very interesting.

• • •

Matt sat in the command chair on his ship and watched the two middle-aged Welken operating the ship. He shook his head and didn’t like that his ships first combat was going to be done by someone other than himself. It wasn’t fair. But Commodore Hughes was right. There was no way for him to keep track of what was going on if he had to fight his ship. He hoped this attack wasn’t a disaster.

The two Welken instructors were quite content to be flying a light ship and going into battle. They grew up in a warrior culture and never liked being relegated to the sidelines. It really helped that they taught cadets how to fly a modern warship. They aced the simulator training and had a hoot of a time doing it. “Jelek, the light drive is even faster than I thought.”

“I thought we agreed to use the barrier.”

“We did but I’m still impressed with the drive. It’s, it’s, incredible.”

Matt blew out a breath, “Palel, your job is to…”

“I know, I know; keep us out of trouble. At the first sign of danger, it’s into the barrier we’ll go. By the way, why are we using the barrier? I thought all Alliance Vessels were restricted from using it.”

“The High Leader has ordered us to use it during this battle. I happen to agree with her. If we use the light drive to skip away at the first sign of trouble, we lose touch with what’s happening around us. Using the barrier to escape keeps us current on the Feeder positions as well as our own ships.”

Palel smiled, “It’s actually faster to use than the light drive.”

“Are the two of you ready to go and get your hands dirty?”

Jelek laughed, “More than you could ever know. This is what we were born to do.”

Matt had to admit that the Welken instructors were more than willing to participate in the mission. Their enthusiasm infected everyone associated with it. Even Silva agreed that they were incredible in how fast they learned how to fly the ship. Most of the experienced officers took the weapons panel and left the flying to the Welken. Mastering the light ship’s weapons was not easily done and the best teacher was actual combat. They weren’t willing to take the time to allow the Welken to learn in combat conditions, especially under the rules given them by the High Leader. Matt could only shake his head at what she ordered them to do.

Matt’s twenty-five ships were going to infiltrate a Feeder Fleet and collect light signatures for their missile magazines. They would remain among the Feeder Warships and would all attack at a predetermined time. They would not be allowed to leave the Feeder formations while they collected target data and waited for the countdown to complete. Matt wished they could hide in the barrier but the High Leader had forbidden them to use it except to escape once the battle began. He guessed this would determine whether the new light absorbing black hulls actually did what they were designed to do. Light would hit the absorption field and penetrate through to the signature collectors; it would not pass back through the field. The light ships should, in theory, be invisible to electronic scanners. The electronic emissions of the light ship’s systems would also not penetrate out of the absorption field. He kept his hand close to the recall button to order a retreat if the system failed.

Matt looked at his visor and saw the twenty-five light ships holding formation above Mars. They appeared on his visor because it was capable of seeing the light ship’s absorption fields. He glanced at the upper right corner of the visor and saw that there were two minutes until launch. He activated his armor’s communicator and smiled, “Two minutes until we launch out to the fleet we’ve selected to attack. I want an even dispersal of ships among their formations and start collecting light signatures the moment you move in among their warships. We will remain in their formation for two minutes and will all launch after the two minutes have passed. If any of our ships are fired on by the Feeders, you will immediately commence combat operations. I repeat, you will open fire only if one of our ships is fired on by the Feeders. Otherwise, we will launch our attack at the end of the two-minute count down. There are only ten thousand Feeder Warships in this particular formation so collect the closest four hundred light signatures around you. I know you have two thousand missiles on board but you will only fire one missile per Feeder Warship. You know our orders, let’s make this happen.”

Matt looked at the time again and said, “We will now go into communication blackout and will launch in fifty eight seconds from…now!” Matt sat back in his chair and watched the digital clock until four zeros appeared. He glanced at the display on his console and saw the huge Feeder Formation one mile away. Palel smoothly moved the small light ship into the mist of the Feeder Fleet. He kept his shoulders bunched expecting one of the giant red warships to open fire, but none did. He kept glancing at the new digital count down and each second appeared to take forever to reduce. He glanced at Jelek and saw him sending the light signatures of the ships they passed to the small computers on the light missiles. He was tighter than an over-torqued bolt and nut. He began to realize that actually fighting a ship was much easier than sitting and watching what was going on. This was nerve wracking.