SODIUM:6 Defiance (11 page)

An Ogle officer was commanding an underling on any number of tasks to be accomplished during his shift. It was a long list and I had to reason that the Ogle had good memory. The officer spoke the list once and then turned and strode off. The soldier then proceeded to head off to accomplish his first task.

We continued our spy mission and soon landed in a room full of diplomats. The discussion was about the DaCuban doors and several heated, but respectful discussions ensued. The Ogle scientists were baffled as to why the human captives had not worked to open the doors. It was evident, from the carvings, that we were indeed the species in question.

One of the scientists then made a statement about how the DNA of the captives had mapped almost exactly to that of the human stolen from the Frekkin. A big red light then began to flash in my head. The captives had somehow been injected with my improved DNA. I reasoned that during our last ten years of captivity, Earth must have conducted an enormous genetic experiment on all humans. They now all had my super-DNA.

As the discussion continued, the topic turned to the Frekkin. They were an annoyance and a distraction to the Ogle. They needed to be dealt with but the Ogle military had been unable to track down their location, they were constantly on the move. Four probes had come in contact with the massive spinning Frekkin matrix and four times the Frekkin had immediately fled from the area. Thousands of new probes were being dispatched to the far corners of our arm of the Milky Way. The Ogle diplomats demanded satisfaction.

When the topic reached that of Earth there seemed to be no clear plan of how to proceed. They reasoned that Earth could easily be destroyed, but then questioned if the humans held the secret to the DaCuban doors. I was waiting for an answer when one of the diplomats stood and adjourned the discussion for another day. Without further word the 36 attendees rose and exited from the room.

It was frustrating, being so close to learning the possible fate of Earth, but the Ogle did not seem pressed for time. We continued to move from room to room until we found a small cubby-hole locker where we could discuss our findings. Hershen was the first to shake his head in discontent. He had no answers.

With little to speculate upon we turned our efforts back towards our investigation of the Ogle through our drifting. We entered a room in close proximity to the mess-hall that we had seen earlier. The Ogle workers in the room were removing small skinned animals from large drums and tossing them into a meat grinder, the other end of which fed the mess-hall with its conveyer of pink paste.

We then moved to the next room where hundreds of workers were busy removing what appeared to be fur before a machine then deboned the small animal carcass. The small steak sized slab of meat was then thrown into one of the large drums and wheeled off towards a freezer. When we drifted into the next room we got a view of who the Ogle really were... they were cannibals! It only took seconds to reason that this behavior likely accounted for their madness.

The room was a birthing room with litter after litter of Ogle being delivered. When each newborn cat emerged it was graded for color. Those that were a complete jet black were placed gently on a cart and wheeled out of the room. The remaining, kittens of various color, were man handled, spun to snap their tender necks and then thrown into a barrel where they would eventually be taken to be skinned and deboned.

It was an immediate realization by both Hershen and I that the Ogle were a species who could never be reasoned with. They were savages, even if being so in a somewhat orderly civilized fashion. They were mad with contempt for everyone but themselves. I knew the lowly Meche were only a patsy being used for their dirty biding. I had no doubt the Meche would be wiped from the galaxy when the Ogle determined it was time. Hershen and I, now disgusted, made our way back to the cubby-hole locker to ponder our next move. We were a long way from home.

After a lengthy discussion about the Ogle's cannibalistic nature, we returned to our exploration. Our first point of interest was an immense power room. The Ogle power-stream consisted of several levels of both fusion and fission. A small reactor fused Hydrogen into Helium. The Helium was then bound to Beryllium where the two atoms were first split and then again fused into Lithium. Lithium then became the fuel for their main fusion reaction.

The ship was also lined with many particle accelerator rings. Their power process yielded spare neutrons which were then magnetically bound and injected into the rings. Hershen would later speculate that perhaps their particle weapons had a limited life before their stored supply of neutrons would run out. It was something I would ask our scientists back home about... if we ever made it home.

We next stumbled upon the ships arsenal. Row after row of blaster weapons were spread out like a sea before us. The blasters were packaged eight to a case. The cases were set next to a system of rails that went out of the walls, ceiling and floor of the large room in nearly every direction. Again our speculation was that if the need arose, the weapons would be sent to all parts of the ship in a matter of seconds. There would be no assault against an unarmed crew unless the weapons room was first put out of commission.

Our exploration continued as we moved into a long oval shaped room. Once inside, we encountered a new creature. There were hundreds of this new species that resembled a flesh colored blob. The animal was the size of approximately one meter cubed with four beady eyes that surrounded a long snout.

The Ogle were lined up around each of the creatures, purring and rubbing against them almost continuously. The creatures in turned stroked the cat's backs with their long snout. It was a strange sight which nearly turned deadly for us.

All at once, every flesh colored snout in the room moved from a cat's back and aimed directly at us, their noses sniffing in the air as if sensing our presence. The cats all turned and looked in our direction, we slowly moved back out of the room. Even if the Ogle themselves were clueless to our presence, their pets, if that is what they were, could pick us out in an instant.

As we continued to move about, the ship put off the tell-tale shudder of jumping to light speed. We were once again on the move. As luck would have it, our next exploration took us onto the ships bridge.

The ships bridge was shaped like a long wide tunnel heading from a high point on the center of the ship's outer hull, to a point just before where the massive accelerator rings led into one giant neutron feed at the nose of the ship. As the room progressed forward and downward it was stationed off in tiers with hundreds of Ogle sitting at workstations and screeching commands. Cats leaped from one level to the next in a continuous parade of moving animals.

As we peered down across the tiers my eyes became fixed on one particular Ogle. It sat, centered in the room, with one of the flesh colored creatures plopped down on either side of it. The cat wore a silver top of sorts that covered only its shoulders. Red tassels hung from either shoulder. I quickly reasoned it to be the ships commander since no other Ogle we had seen had decoration or clothing of any type.

As we stood staring the two flesh colored creatures again gave up their caressing duties and aimed their snouts up the long expanse of the bridge towards Hershen and I, we beat a hasty retreat. The cubbyhole we had used several times before again became our sanctuary.

Hershen was first to begin our discussion. The energy packs built into our BGS suits were empty and the spares we carried on our belts were getting dangerously low on Sodium. We had less than two weeks of energy left, and the two week estimate was with little or no activity. Our free explorations had come to an end.

I used the gyroscopes built into my suit to determine the ships direction. Calculations soon told us that we were heading towards Earth. Our thoughts of discussing the explorations quickly turned to those of defense of home. Could we take down the Ogle ship from within?

Our first ideas were to sabotage one of the free-neutron tubes. We reasoned that a powerful stream of neutrons released within the giant ship would be an effective method of causing either severe damage or possibly its full destruction. Our problem was one of how to initiate a breach of the tube without committing suicide.

During the flight back to Earth we attempted to conserve our remaining Sodium fuel. Several scouting missions were conducted to determine the best location for an accelerator tube breach while giving at least a minimal chance of escape. A tube near the armory was selected.

In addition, Hershen hatched a plan to try to steal the Ogle transport that held the DaCuban captives. With luck, we would destroy the Ogle ship as we escaped with the species that could potentially open the great doors on DaCuban. I accepted the task of sabotaging the accelerator tubes while Hershen would liberate the captives. With our plans in place we waited patiently for our queue.

The Ogle ship shuddered as it came to a stop near what we thought was to be Earth. But it wasn't Earth we had come to wage war with... Toledus and Mabia. The planets had immediately gone into protective mode with their surrounding active shields coming quickly online.

Four fleets of mixed Human and Kurtz warriors soon assaulted the 32 large Ogle ships that had dropped from light speed. After programming our suits to pick up the video feeds within the Ogle ship we watched as our fleets fought gallantly against the overwhelming force. The Ogle ships quickly joined into six pods of five ships before first firing their particle weapons.

The second fleet was the first to take the heat. The first several shots of hyper-velocity neutrons were blocked by a newly installed powerful static field generator. This field was quickly defeated by a second beam coming from an Ogle pod firing from a side location.

As I moved into position near a neutron tube Hershen made his way aboard the Ogle transport that housed the captives. The alarms of the transports theft sounded, I went to work on the neutron tube. My first attempt was to fire a gravity pulse from a distance. I rolled my eyes as nothing of significance happened. I moved close and set the pulse to maximum before letting loose with the second shot.

Again the neutron tube showed no damage, even as the surrounding structure crumpled and broke free. This of course alerted the local cats to my presence and I was soon dodging random shots in my direction. I quickly jumped to the next room and again attempted to damage the neutron tube, again I was unsuccessful.

Hershen lifted off in the docking bay of the Ogle ship but was trapped inside as the neutron beam would be used to destroy the transport if it left the bay. The transport had flown the perimeter of the bay several times taking out any small arms fire that came its way. I hurried to find a solution to our problem.

As I moved into a third room I set my active skin to minimum and removed the BHD from its glove. I quickly programmed a delayed firing into its local control chip and then wedged it into a space beside the neutron tube housing. I quickly turned and ran for the nearest wall, blinking out with my BGS suit on full as I made contact.

I drifted through several successive rooms before the BHD I had left behind activated. The microscopic black holes created by the BHD only required an instant to cut through the shielding of the neutron tube. As the neutrons broke free they annihilated everything in their path.

I could do nothing but drift and hope the destruction did not come my way. My suit was on maximum, but this was not small arms fire I was looking to defend against. It was a stream of neutrons traveling at near the speed of light. My time was running out.

As I exited a room I came in contact with a rail that was transporting blaster weapons to some other part of the ship. I reached out and blinked back in as the next case of eight blasters began to speed past. I grabbed and held on for dear life with every fiber of muscle I had in my left hand and forearm. At that moment I told Hershen over our old RF link to leave and not look back... I was finished.

The case twisted and turned as it made its way towards the back of the ship. Ogle crewmen were running everywhere as the destruction from the loosed neutrons began to spread. The breach created by the BHD was small but the stream of particles it spewed forth was continuous. Explosions rocked the ship as the blaster weapon case I clung hard to came to a stop in the very docking bay that Hershen had been trapped in. I caught sight of the tail end of the transport as it exited through the now failing port.

I let loose of the case and skidded into the open just as another violent explosion ripped through the Ogle ship. The transport slipped out through the open port as the power shut down on the containment field generator. I again flipped my suit to maximum shield as the vacuum of space pulled me quickly out along with several thousand Ogle as they attempted to scramble to other ships.

As I drifted into the dead of space I turned just in time to see the escaping stream of neutrons as they cut through the other four ships in the pod. In a matter of seconds the five ships were engulfed in a ring of their own fire. They burned brightly as they began to disintegrate. I took pleasure in their demise as I drifted aimlessly.

Three pods of Ogle ships quickly moved into position near Mabia and began to blast away at the great planetary shield. Again, the Kurtz had recently added powerful static field generators in an attempt to bolster their survivability, but the Ogle particle beams were still too powerful.

The shield surrounding Mabia soon collapsed and the Ogle ships did a nasty job of scorching much of the planet's surface below. Instantly gone were the shining new cities and transportation systems. Gone were the newly terraformed lands and gone were many of Hershen's people.

As I watched on the two remaining Ogle ships were busy releasing the long cylinders towards the Kurtz sun. I wondered aloud where the remainder of the AMP fleet was and why they had not engaged in an attempt to save the Kurtz worlds from destruction. In the dark recesses of my mind I raged at the humans who I suspected had kept the fleet to protect their own world... my world... Earth.

When the shields had fallen on Toledus the Ogle ships were again relentless with their scorching strategy. As the remaining ship of the four Kurtz' fleets exploded in its final flash of glory the Ogle ships again fired the solar cylinders towards the Kurtz sun. I knew then that the two Kurtz planets were doomed. Our only consolation was that the stolen Ogle transport had slipped through light speed just after its exit; it was now headed towards Earth.

The Kurtz had been our allies since I first conquered their original world of Toleda. Our friends fought bravely, we fought side-by-side against the Borten and Frekkin. But the Kurtz were no more as a powerful species. Their numbers would soon be few as billions of their citizens awaited a death sentence... death by Coronal Mass Ejection.

I wanted to comfort my friend but he was now far away. We were soldiers and this was war. With an outcome of such certainty you could do nothing but accept it in silence. I was troubled that his ride to Earth would be long and quiet.

As my thoughts turned back to the situation at hand, I knew I was in deep trouble. I was down to eight days of power and had no means of propulsion. A quick scan told me that although a large portion of one of the destroyed Ogle ships was floating in my direction it would miss my position by hundreds of kilometers.

I was stuck, awaiting a cold and thankless death. I had thoughts of broadcasting a message to the Ogle, but I knew they were not a captor that I wished to give in to. I had seen how they treated prisoners and knew that it would not only mean certain death, but possibly a long and tortured one. I chose instead to keep my silence.

When the solar cylinders exploded inside the Kurtz sun I knew my time was nearing an end. I watched helplessly as the twin coronal masses spread out in columns that would soon intersect the Kurtz worlds. The following day I watched in sadness as every life that had been spared from the particle beams was scorched by the million degree plasma. The Kurtz worlds were gone. All but one of the Ogle ships then vanished in an instant.

As I drifted, contemplating my final days, the remaining Ogle ship moved in my direction. It stopped only meters from me. I flailed my arms and legs in an attempt to move closer, but it only served to start me spinning. The Ogle ship, just out of my reach, then began a salvage operation on several of the larger portions of the destroyed ship's debris.

For a full day I fought, wriggled and kicked, but moved no closer. Just as I had given in to the situation the sleek black ship moved around me. I dropped my active skin to a minimum and set my feet firmly onto the floor of a supply room. Seconds later I felt the shudder of the ship jumping through light speed.

I was giddy with excitement; the excitement that came not only with survival, but with the opportunity to once again attempt to bring hurt and pain to my enemy. I began to make my way towards the blaster room as I was in need of a weapon that would not drain the little power I had remaining in my suit. I soon had a case open and a weapon in hand.

With my BGS on minimum I was invisible to the naked eye, but the blaster weapon was not. As I gripped the stock it appeared to float in air by itself. I came to the realization that it would do me no good, as appealing as it was, to just start shooting at the first thing that moved. I needed a plan, a plan to maximize the damage that I could potentially do.

I removed the blaster from the room and stuffed it in an obscure corner between two sets of interconnecting pipes. I covered the blaster shape with a loose towel that held a similar color as the pipes. It was not a perfect hideaway, but neither was it something that stood out, it was the best that I could do.

I then began a new mission, a mission to come up with a plan. I spent the next two days drifting from room to room, looking for that one weakness that screamed out at me, but nothing of value presented itself. The blaster weapon was not powerful enough to breach the containment field of the neutron tubes. I would have to find another way.