Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship (9 page)

The crowd erupted in cheers and screamed their agreement. They started chanting a rhythm and then began dancing. Jaleh turned and looked at Ben and Mohammed. She handed Ben the microphone as she stared them down. “Take your message of hate and division somewhere else. We won’t listen to it here.” She turned and walked off the stage and joined the groups dancing as she moved through the crowds.

Ben lifted the microphone and started to speak but saw it was wasted effort. He took a deep breath and blew it out. Mohammed looked at him and said, “I think our temples should be located close together.”

Ben jerked his head around and stared at him. “Why?”

“So that those families with members of different faiths can meet after worship.”

Ben’s anger was close to rage but he paused and thought about the statement. “Do you seriously see that happening?”

Mohammed said, “Look toward the back of the crowd about two hundred feet from the left edge.” Ben looked out from the stage and tried to see what Mohammed was talking about. “Look for a tall young man wearing a green military uniform.”

Ben looked closer and saw the young man Mohammed was describing. Jaleh was dancing with him. It was Ben’s oldest son. Her smile could be seen a long way off. He stared closer at the crowd and saw they were all dancing together. Most of the young were dancing with partners from a different community. Ben looked at Mohammed and saw him extend his hand. The corner of his lip went up and Ben took it. “This time, we’ll do it right.” Mohammed nodded and they moved off the stage into the crowd and joined in the dance.

• • •

Jeanette roared into the atmosphere and ran out of the Q ship as it landed at her residence. She found Joshua sitting on the front porch with his school’s lead educator. She looked at Josh and saw the petulant frown on his face and sighed, “What did he do this time?”

“He disrupted the class during physical training. He challenged the instructor and told everyone that they were idiots for taking part in the exercises.”

Jeanette looked at Josh, “Is this true?”

Josh’s mouth was a sneer, “What if it is?”

Jeanette stared at her fifteen year old son and knew she didn’t have a choice. To treat him differently would only send a bad message to the students he had disrupted. Jeanette looked at Mr. Tanner and sighed. She pressed her collar and heard Tilly answer, “Yes, Jeanette. How may I help you?”

“Please send a carrier from the DV-8 facility.”

There was a pause and she heard, “Who will it be taking?”

Jeanette saw Josh’s expression change from sneering to concern. “Josh Adams.”

“Oh, Jeanette; I’m so sorry.”

“Send it, Tilly.”

Mr. Tanner looked at Josh, “Perhaps this can be avoided if you’ll just agree to participate in your education without disruption.”

Josh stared at his mother. There’s no way she would send him away. He looked at her and yelled, “I loved living on Earth and you forced me to leave. I had a great life there and you made me give it up!”

“It was Earth’s Leaders that determined you had to leave.”

“It was you…and Dad. I was respected and loved there.”

Jeanette shook her head, “No you weren’t. You weren’t loved or respected by those around you; you were feared.”

“YOU’RE CRAZY! MY FRIENDS LOVED ME!!”

“They knew your parents were Hunters; they feared you. You were too blind to see it.”

“You never allowed them to come to our home!”

“They never came because they were too afraid. You’re too blind to see reality and now you’re going to be with those who think like you.”

Josh sneered, “Dad will never allow it.”

Jeanette pressed her collar and heard, “Hi, Love. What’s going on?”

“I’ve ordered a carrier to take Josh to the DV-8 facility.”

“Do you really think this is called for?”

Josh smiled an ‘I told you’ so grin and Jeanette said, “I do.”

“I’ll come home tonight. I know how upsetting this is for both of us but I support your decision.”

Josh’s smiled evaporated as a carrier landed and three armored warriors stepped out. One raised a stunner as they approached, “Who is the one we’re here to pick up?”

Josh looked at Jeanette and started shaking his head, “Mom, you can’t do this. I’ll straighten up.”

Jeanette shook her head, “If you had said that before I made the call, I might believe you. After all the lies about doing better, I no longer trust your word.” She looked at the three warriors and said, “This is the one.”

Josh stood up and suddenly ran off the porch. He made it fifteen feet before he was dropped by the stunner. Mr. Tanner shook his head as the carrier lifted with Jeanette’s son on board. “He’s one of the most intelligent in his class. I think he’s bored by what we’ve been teaching.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Mr. Tanner. This was coming for a long time. It had to be done.” They watched the carrier disappear and after Mr. Tanner left, Jeanette went inside and wept. She was still weeping when Adams arrived and took her in his arms.

• • •

Jesse and Elle looked at the panel and knew trouble lay ahead for another of the Assembly’s planets. A Gracken Scout Warship had moved in above the planet and was running scans of the population centers. Jessie sighed and looked up, “Pete, are the guns loaded.”

“I’m moving the belts into them now.”

“We’re going to have to do this fast; once they see us they will hit their drives.”

“The guns are actually designed to hit targets moving toward us or are stationary. I’m certain they won’t be able to get underway before we get off a volley.”

“I’m a little nervous about using the new Sliver Rounds instead of the spent uranium the guns were designed to fire.”

“The tips are still uranium; the projectile behind the tips are sliver technology. They should penetrate before they explode.”

Jesse put on his helmet and activated the targeting program. “You know, Pete, you could actually fire the guns yourself.”

“Computers are not given the freedom of complete control over any weapons systems. I could fire them but then you would be responsible for moving the ship so that the guns are aligned with the target.”

“You know neither of us could do that as fast as you.”

“Thus, you pull the trigger.”

Elle continued to stare at the Gracken Scout and shook her head, “Pete, do you really think these small rounds will do anything against a ship that large?”

“The designers say they will. I’ve read in their developmental reports that the rounds could have been made larger but it was believed that would have been overkill.”

Elle shook her head, “That ship is four times our size and the scanners report it’s heavily armed.”

“We’ll find out, shall we?”

Jesse looked at the target tracker in his visor, “How are you going to approach it?”

“I’ve thought about coming in broadside to it but that is where the majority of their blasters are located. I think the best route would be to come in straight over the bow and fire the guns the length of the ship. The first place we’ll hit will be the bridge and, if their rounds do work, we’ll immobilize the ship.”

Elle smiled, “And if they do happen to get underway they’ll be moving toward us.”

“Exactly right.”

“Alright Pete, take us in.”

“I’ve sent a call to Jeanette to bring her ship here as well.”

“Why?”

“Her ship is equipped with the cannons. If we miss, she might be able to take it out.”

“Should we wait for her to arrive?”

“She has our location and I’m concerned that two of our ships here might be detected. She’ll jump in the moment we start our attack.”

“Count it down, Pete.”

• • •

The Gracken Ship Commander stared at the wall display and smiled. This planet was full of advanced technology and modern metals. It would be a great source of wealth for him and his crew. The finding fund was huge and this planet would be richly rewarded. He looked at his scanning team and said, “Do you have what you need?”

“We’re doing one more scan for their power plants. The initial return is off the chart. There are thousands of high grade reactors on the planet that will power many of our citizen’s cities.”

Suddenly the alarms went off and the force field around the giant scout cut off all scans. “We have an enemy vessel coming head on at high speed.”

The Gracken Ship Commander said, “Get us underway and target it with our top blasters.”

The bridge crew stared at the monitor showing the approaching ship and then went to their tasks. That brief moment of looking at the monitor proved fatal.

• • •

Jessie saw the giant dark brown warship grow in his visor and the cursor in the targeting program overlapped the X and he pulled the trigger on his console. The thousands of shells leaving the bow of the Q ship were incredible and he marched the six lines from the General Electric Gatling guns down the length of the scout.

• • •

The Gracken Ship Commander saw sparks coming from the enemy ship rushing at his vessel and that was the last thing he saw. Two thousand rounds of high explosive blasted through the Gracken’s hull and blew away the bridge. Every Gracken was blown apart as the rounds moved further down the ship’s hull. The explosions blowing up through the punctured hull of the scout could be seen in the wall display and Elle was amazed at the damage being done to the giant vessel. The Q ship passed the end of the giant ship and turned to make another run as Jeanette’s ship arrived and fired two cannon rounds into the bow and rear of the ship. The two explosions ignited the Scout’s reactors and a giant explosion blasted the scout into vapor. The planet was safe, for the moment. Scouts worked alone for selfish reasons and the Communications Leader never got a call out before the bridge was destroyed.

Jesse watched the ship explode and smiled, “That was good shooting, Jeanette.”

“I’m not really sure it was needed. My computer tells me that pretty much every living Gracken on board had been killed by your run.”

“Pete?”

“She’s right. Everyone on board was killed by either being hit directly by one of the rounds or blasted by the ensuing explosion. We somehow managed to miss hitting the reactors which would have exploded the ship.”

Elle took off her helmet and Jesse was once again amazed by her beauty. Her blonde hair and blue eyes were just as amazing as the day he first met her when she was entering college. She saw him looking at her and smiled. She knew how much he loved her. She said, “Do you think they’ll send a follow up?”

Silence followed her question. Jeanette finally broke the silence, “We really don’t know very much about these creatures. We’ll drop a probe, jump away, and wait to see.”

Jesse smiled, “You really don’t have to stay. We can wait to see if anything shows up.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I need to stay busy. I’ll stay and the two of you can go take care of anything you need.”

Pete said on the private channel, “She just sent her oldest son to the DV-8 facility.”

Jesse looked at Elle and saw her shock. “Why don’t we wait together? You can come and join us on our ship.”

Jeanette fought back her tears and said, “Thanks, Jesse; I think I’d like that. I’ll dock with your ship once we jump out.” The two Q ships disappeared leaving small pieces of debris falling into the planet’s atmosphere creating a beautiful meteor shower.

J
osh leaned against the back wall of the barracks and tried to get the cobwebs out of his head from being stunned. He looked down and saw he was wearing a light blue jumpsuit that was different from the green suits everyone else was wearing. He knew it meant something but his brain was too fuzzy to figure it out. He looked up and saw a huge teenager walking up with ten others. The giant bent down and lifted Josh’s chin and forced him to look him in the eyes. He moved Josh’s head from side to side and looked over his shoulder, “What’s wrong with this newbie?”

One of the boys standing next to the giant said, “I heard one of the ones that carried him in here say he was stunned by one of the warriors that picked him up.”

The giant looked back at Josh and smiled, “I like that.” He raised Josh’s chin slightly and said, “I’m going to cut you some slack and not teach you who is boss here. If I say jump, you do it and don’t ask questions; you got that?” Josh could only stare at the big boy. He still had no control of his vocal apparatus. The boy saw Josh’s glazed eyes and he slapped him viciously across the face. Josh fell to the side and the giant looked at the others, “Tell him who did it and how things work here when he wakes up.” The boys surrounding the giant nodded and he turned and walked to the front of the barracks.

No one needed to tell Josh. He could see what was going on and he decided to play it cool and keep a low profile. The first thing he was going to do was pretend he was unable to talk. Silence was the best way to be left alone. He stayed prone on the back wall and remained there all night. He watched the big ruler of the barracks hit numerous residents. Sometimes for no reason at all except for the joy of seeing the pain they endured.

• • •

The next morning the residents of the barracks got up, dressed, and walked out of the barracks. One of the boys came and helped Josh stand up, “It’s time to eat, Stumbles. Get up.” Josh allowed the boy to help him up and he stumbled out of the building following the others toward a huge building located in the center of more than a hundred barracks.

He looked around and saw a mass of young boys and girls walking toward the huge building. There had to be several thousand just moving around him. The boy let him go and he caught himself and forced himself to slowly drag his feet as he walked with the others. He filled a plate and saw that none of the members of the different barracks sat with those from other barracks. He walked to the table where his barracks were sitting and heard the big boy say, “Sit at the end of the table, Stumbles. We don’t want to be infected by whatever rot is eating you.” The others laughed and Josh moved to the end of the table away from everyone else. He noticed a girl sitting there alone. He put his tray down and sat down several chairs from her and focused on is food.