SODIUM:6 Defiance (7 page)

The Roache had three minor species from the archways that served as slaves. The three sub-species were also insectoid in appearance with a hard exoskeleton instead of skin or fur. Their black eyes and protruding antennae gave them a look of having no conscience, no regrets and no remorse. They did what they did without thought or reason or justification. Every action was centered around a queen.

The second dominant species in the system were the Moom. The Moom lived underground on the rocky world of Benis. Because of the underground nature of their society we had no good estimate of their numbers. All we knew was that they had a system of trade with the Roache and whatever elements they were delivering appeared to be vital. In return they got supplies from the Roache making the two species inter-dependent.

Their military vessels were small as compared to ours but their numbers were in the thousands, parked in pods around the seven orbiting stations. From the information we could gather their shields, weapons and drives were inferior to ours. The orders came down for us to not attempt to communicate with them until we knew more. After several weeks of observation we moved on to the third world in the Rigel system.

The planet was Relad and the species the Reladians. The star was another main sequence dwarf of low luminosity. The Reladians were akin to a large rat in size with long arms that could double as legs allowing them to run on all fours. When walking they would waddle on their hind legs as their fat bellies moved from side to side. Their white fur and pink noses offered a friendly appearance, but friendly they were not.

The Reladians had two archways species as their slaves and the treatment of them was brutal and unjust. The video streams we captured showed abuse, neglect and outright murder of the friendly furry slave species under their control. They seemed to thrive on watching, hearing and inflicting pain and anguish on their captors. I was not fond of the Reladians and their way of life. I felt a desire to put an end to their dominance, but command had ordered otherwise.

We observed their vile and objectionable ways for the better part of a week before Command issued the order for us to return to Earth. The Reladians, like the Roache and the Moom were of little consequence to the AMP. Their propulsion systems were sub-light and their weapons and shields conventional. With a single fleet from Earth I had no doubt we could put an end to their existence. Our commanders however, had other more pressing objectives for the Saxon and its crew.

The two month ride home was depressing knowing the plight of the archway species of Rigel. We were given the task of continued study of the beings we had encountered on our trip. Thousands of hours of captured video and audio streams were available for our task.

I focused on the Meche as a species. They seemed cold, almost robotic. I cringed at the thought of being a Geffel and being captured by them. In my own captivities I had been lucky, my treatment had been humane. For the Geffel it had been anything but humane. I had my moments of rage and anger, but the Meche had made it the base of their culture.

When we arrived home on Earth it felt good to leave the galaxies problems behind. I had two weeks leave and I would spend it with the family on the farm. Earth's population had stabilized at three and a half billion, Alvin added another one and a half billion on top of that. Without war, the quality of life of everyone had continued to increase. But the Ogle and Frekkin threats still loomed.

On Toledus, the Kurtz had construction of their planetary shield well under way. Their cities shined brightly and their countryside was filled with plants and animals from their native home world. All had been gathered before its destruction. The Kurtz people were happy and their education system was churning out scientists and engineers in astonishing numbers. And their government was well on its way to becoming a democracy.

I landed at the farm and found my parents, Zack's mother and Zack's wife in good health. He and his sons were stationed with the 4th fleet in orbit around Alvin. The two weeks offered a good opportunity to wind down and enjoy the little things in life. Trouble would be coming soon enough.

When I returned to base I spent the next three weeks in debriefings. Command wanted our thoughts on every detail of our journey even though they had live streaming video and audio from our implants during its entirety. It was an exercise in tedium, but one which they felt was necessary.

When the briefings ended Hershen and I were given the choice of once again exploring new worlds with the science team, or for a return trip to the Mudari Effort for continued work as ambassadors. While the lure of new worlds had its appeal, I was more interested in learning about the technologies the Mundari used to keep the Ogle at bay. Exploring new worlds was meaningless if we could not protect the ones we already had.

We were given a new ship and a new crew. The ship was named the Jacques after a hero from the Borten war. After his weapon had been disabled he took to hand-to-hand combat while leading his squad of Marines to victory. His life had been lost in a violent explosion, but not before he had gotten his squad to a safe location. I liked the military tie-in with the name.

The Jacques had the latest of our drives which included a burst mode. The burst mode had a one-time use that would propel the ship to light speed in under a second. The newest drives normally took seven. With the incorporation of a static field generator the top safe speed of the craft was almost doubled to 20,000 SOL. The static field could be propelled out in front of the ship as we flew offering additional shielding and hence the doubling of speed.

The static field would also be used on approach to a target as it effectively blocked all detection of our BHD in one direction. The field could also be "boxed" to hold something of similar size to our ship captive or "windowed" to allow escape from another boxed static field.

The gravity generator on-board the Jacques had also been enhanced and was given the designation of a shield as an attempt to downplay its potential use as a weapon. Diplomatic vessels were not supposed to be well armed. It had also been given our newest and fastest computers with an auto-translator that was capable of cracking almost any language in a matter of minutes if given written symbols and audio samples. Video feeds would only speed the process.

Just before our flight was to leave, Hershen and I were refitted with new BGS Ambassador suits. They were the traditional silver with red and blue stripes with the addition of one shoulder being bright green. Neither of us were thrilled with the look but we were not on a fashion mission. The psychologists involved in the green shoulder design had put forth the idea that it would distinguish Ambassadors from other citizens. Hershen felt it would only make us targets, I agreed.

We lifted off on an Earth Friday and arrived on a Monday. For the Gidden it was the middle of their cycle. The Gidden day was nearly one-and-one-half Earth days. The annual orbital period was divided into 25 cycles of 15 Earth days equivalent. Their day, called a "malk", consisted of 10 hours of sleep followed by 25 hours of wake. We adjusted our suits upon arrival.

With the stimulants and sleep aids the BGS suit could be adjusted to fit the day of most worlds. It was another of its advantages that allowed a seamless transition to other world periods, habits and cultures. A few quick commands and our biological clocks were immediately in sync with the local time.

Gidden ambassador Kurg met us in the space port of the orbital station. From there we were taken to the surface of Meyer where the endless meetings with dignitaries were to begin. For the first 12 malks we did nothing but greet and glad-hand. In the Mundari Effort, just as on Earth, a handshake was considered a gesture of good intentions.

On day 13 we had our first introduction to a Gidden engineer. Her name was Raoof and she had been assigned to be our technical liaison. The Gidden had agreed to analyze potential technology swaps and Raoof had been given the lead on what would be of most interest. Both sides would put forth a technology for evaluation and the other would assign a score as to its merit and usefulness for their people.

Items up for discussion were the sustenance portion of our BGS suits, our fusion generators, our gravity generators and our newest translation algorithms. The Gidden in turn offered a shield similar to our static field but more powerful, a Rubidium generator, as those that powered their worlds, and a particle beam device that could be used to build almost anything from a distance.

The particle beam, guided by a gravity pulse, would deposit atomized material at a defined point in space. Essentially, it allowed any item, large or small, to be constructed by depositing layer upon layer of material. The Mundari were no longer in need of factories to produce parts or robots to assemble them. They could construct any non-biological in any shape or form desired. But they could not give it life.

Our scientists and engineers were quick to jump on the idea of the Particle Composer. Designs could be constructed and tested in real world scenarios without first having to rely on simulations and expensive prototypes. It would revolutionize how almost everything was made in the AMP.

For the Mundari, they were particularly interested in our BGS suit. The thought of transforming their entire food industry from one that relied on sustainable farming to one that only needed a discrete set of compounds had their engineers sitting on the edges of their chairs. Ambassador Kurg was not quite as keen on the idea as he placed a high level of importance on his eating habits. He imagined that it would be difficult to give up one of the prized perks of being an Ambassador... the food was always top notch.

Over the next month we continued our diplomatic and technological exchange efforts. Both sides were pleased with the developing relationship. But the honeymoon period was short lived as trouble brewed. The Jessian capital planet of Dawson had begun to flip its magnetic poles. It was alarming in that it was an event that would only happen every several million Earth years and the previous switch had only occurred some 400,000 years prior.

The switch was also happening at a rate that was almost inconceivable. What would normally take place over tens of thousands of years was happening in a week. Life on the planet was being disrupted in almost every way. The stoic and predictable weather patterns were chaotic. Animals that relied on the magnetic fields for navigation were suddenly lost. Radio communications, including the audio implants that every citizen carried were disrupted as were most electronics. All Jessians in the Mundari Effort were called home to their planets.

The anomaly had happened on a day when the Jessian birthing lines were in a full run. More than 70,000 new citizens had been lost. It would take months for the process to once again be viable. The birthing process was an important event in every Jessian family, with many weeks of planning put into a celebration. For those involved, disruption was unheard of and very unsettling.

The Giddens offered a team of top scientists to assist in finding out why it had happened. While still in orbit around Dawson it was determined that a massive restricted magnetic field located just inside the planet's core was forcing the switch. It was also determined to not be from a natural source.

As the Jessian engineers worked on a solution a second disaster struck. The second planet of seven in their five star systems came down with the same issue, a forced switch of its magnetic poles. When a third planet did the same soon after, the full Mundari security forces were put on alert. Not a single Jessian remained outside of their planetary systems. All citizens were immediately called into defensive service... all citizens readily accepted.

In a reaction to the apparent attack that was underway the Mundari moved nearly half of their substantial fleet into the Jessian sector. Shortly thereafter, anomalies began to appear at thousands of points in the surrounding space. I asked ambassador Kurg if we could return to our ship and was relieved when given the permission to do so.

Once on-board the Jacques we tuned our long-wave sensors to the anomalous magnetic frequencies. Static fields began to form and soon encased entire planets as well as the Mundari ships that were now standing guard. Within the hour the Jessian worlds, their citizens, transports and military ships were held captive in static fields.

Our sensors began to detect fast movement in and among the Gidden worlds. I forwarded the data to Ambassador Kurg and he in turn patched it through to their military. When the first of the Gidden worlds began to undergo a polar switch Kurg asked if there was any other assistance we could provide. I told him that I would immediately relay the request to AMP Command.

The Gidden worlds were soon trapped in the static fields with their magnetic poles switching states. Hours later the Nickarian worlds befell the same fate. The 137 billion citizens of the Mundari Effort were now held captive as their worlds were corrupted. Panic ensued and martial law was put in place.

When the static box had closed around Meyer we were cut off from sending or receiving signals to anywhere external to the box. We powered up our static generator and set the mode to "window". When we arrived at the edge of the box the projected window opened a square hole in the static field and the Jacques quietly slipped through.

Communications with AMP Command were immediately restored and the shift commanders informed of the situation. Two AMP fleets were immediately dispatched to aid the Mundari Effort. Each ship contained a static generator similar to ours that could be used to open a window for entry to or exit from a static field box.

As we sat just outside the Gidden systems alarms went off. An Ogle and a Meche ship had arrived in one of the Jessian systems. Two days later a massive CME exploded from the sun and headed towards the Jessian world of Ward. Another two days later, just as the first plasma from the CME arrived at the static box that enclosed the planet, the static field shut down.

We watched in horror as another planet, with its population fully present, had its atmosphere and surface heated to several million degrees. The air surrounding the planet was superheated and then blown away as the two million kilometer per hour waves of plasma struck the planet. Three billion citizens were dead in a matter of seconds.

The two attacking ships then moved to the next planet in the Jessian system. Bobbi was a lush tropical paradise. It was known as the vacation world of the Jessians and was often visited by citizens from throughout the Mundari Effort. Four days later it was nothing more than a black charred lifeless rocky sphere. On the eighth day four more massive Ogle ships arrived along with thousands of Meche cruisers. One by one the cylinders of death were launched into the suns and the Jessian worlds burned.

On the 16th day of the attack our fleets arrived from duty off Alvin. The ships of the 4th fleet went immediately to work opening windows in the static fields of the Jessian systems and the 8th fleet did the same with the Giddens. Thousands of Mundari ships began to stream out of the window openings.

The Mundari ships were superior to the Meche but only by a small margin. The Meche cruisers had been outfitted with the ultra-powerful particle beams of the Ogle and began to tear through the first Mundari ships that arrived. Shields were soon adjusted and a fierce battle ensued. Each time the Mundari began to get the upper hand their ships were once again encased in a static field. The tactic served the Meche well as they were able to then concentrate fire on smaller groups of Mundari ships.

As our fleets freed more of the Mundari the tide of the battle began to slowly shift. The Meche would soon be on the defensive as the Ogle ships continued to burn the Jessain planets. When the Mundari finally had the upper hand every Jessain world, and three Gidden worlds, had been destroyed.

In a final push the Meche ships targeted only those ships that were designated as Jessian. The Meche losses were heavy as every Jessian flagged vessel was destroyed. When the last Jessian ship exploded the Meche and Ogle turned and fled.

At first, we did not understand why the Meche were only attacking the Jessian ships while ignoring the Nickarian, Gidden and others, it was a costly strategy. But when the attackers had turned and fled there were only a few dozen Jessians left alive in all of the Mundari Effort. They had been trapped in medical bays on other planets and were in such severe states of peril that they had not been moved. They were now the lone survivors of their species.

A week after the attack had ended the planets magnetic fields were returning to normal. It was then that we received hundreds of alerts from our long-wave sensors. We could not pinpoint the movement but it was happening in and around the remaining Mundari worlds. We soon found out the reason for the new attack. The remaining 136 Jessians, spread throughout the Mundari Effort, were assassinated in their hospital beds... all on the same day. It was difficult for the Mundari to comprehend, but the Jessains were no more, they had been eliminated from existence.

When I again met up with Ambassador Kurg he was depressed. He had many Jessian friends and fellow diplomats that were now gone. It was a huge blow to a people who up until that event felt that they were amongst the strongest and safest collection of worlds in the galaxy. It was a lesson that was hard learned.

As a gesture of goodwill and cooperation we released or static windowing technology to the Mundari. They would never again be trapped in the static fields and were eternally grateful for our gesture. In exchange we were given full diplomatic rights to their systems and every technology they had at their disposal.

Our engineers began drafting plans for the conversion of all AMP factories from robotics to particle composers. Our power systems were also to be re-engineered for Rubidium reactors, which yielded an order of magnitude increase in available power. With Rubidium power, our drive systems would be capable of nearly 50,000 SOL. The jump from Earth to Alvin could be done in less than 4 hours. The jump to the Mundari Effort could be made in 12 days. The galaxy was about to get a little smaller.