Space Chronicles: The Last Human War (16 page)

“Simon
. Simon! Wake up!”

There was urgency in Dr. B
oroski’s voice. The former boom operator stretched and slowly recognized features of the spaceship control room. He was still lying in the pilot’s chair.

“I’m sorry,
Doctor. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” He sat up.

“
We have trouble.”

Several consoles above Simon flickered to life. They showed dozens of huge space ships maneuvering in space, weapons firing with devastating results.
He had never seen such a spectacle. Even childhood space-games failed to match the enormous scale of combat on those screens. He gasped when one impressive ship vaporized in a brilliant flash.

“That was a Tanarac deep spa
ce battle cruiser,” Dr. Boroski said in subdued tones. “The Heptari fleet is attacking Tanarac forces in deep space.”

“But, you said it was just a small attack force.”

“The small force that surrounded this planet was destroyed. This is a new engagement by at least four Heptari Battle Groups. Tanaracs defending this system are heavily outnumbered, and larger Heptari ships have some new kind of particle cannon that Tanarac shields cannot stop.”

Dr. Boroski waved a hand at the displays. They went black. He walked across the control deck
, and the light lift at the far end of the room activated.

“Simon come, we are running out of time. Benjamin will soon return for you. Pa
y close attention to what I am about to tell you.”

The holographic scientist directed
his student into the light lift and met him in engineering below. As they passed through the ship, he gave the young man a final message for the free human colony.

Simon approached the wall where he entered the ship two days before
. It began to glow. His body lifted off the ground, once again suspended inside a force field. In his mind, he reviewed the message he carried for the free humans outside.

His future, once simple and predictable, was now out of his control. He was, at the same time
, frightened and exhilarated.

“Thank you for your efforts. I am certain my people will cooperate.”

Benjamin was not surprised when Dr. Hadje related the assembly’s decision. The plan with General Tragge had been hopeful, at best, but
the doctor correctly predicted the result. They had planned accordingly. Now, it was time for action.

The two Tanarac scientists and Benjamin returned to the quarry plow shed, where
the hidden military glider waited. The Head Tasker arrived moments later, accompanied by a human worker dressed in traditional plow operator garb.

“Jix, remove our scientific hardware from the glider
,” Dr. Hadje instructed. “We need room for another passenger.”

After a short
talk with the Head Tasker, he returned with the young human following obediently. He instructed passengers to strap in while he guided the small scout craft through the shed’s plow door. As soon as they were clear, the head scientist pushed the scout sled to maximum throttle, making no effort to conceal their travel. They soared high above the jungle and had not traveled far when two atmospheric fighters swooped down next to them.

“Unidentified aircraft. This is the Lower Atmospheric Defense System. You are violating the Central Jungle No-Fly Zone. Identify yourself.”

“This is Egghead One. I repeat, this is Egghead One,” Dr. Hadje responded immediately.

“Roger, Egghead One. Hold your course while we verify authorization.”

One of the fighters throttled back and settled in, menacingly close behind the scout glider. The radio crackled with empty static for a few seconds.

“Affirmative, Egghead One. You are cleared to proceed. ARAD Six, you guys can release from surveillance. They’re okay.”

The fighters pulled up at an astonishing rate of climb to return patrolling.

“
How’d you get that clearance?” Jix was surprised.

“After General Tragge decided to help us, he offered me a military scout glider. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I already have one. He wasn’t pleased, but he personally authorized unrestricted travel. When they asked him to assign me a call-sign, he got a little revenge. ‘Egghead’ is the old nickname he gave me in college.”

The doctor grinned. After all these years, he had actually come to like Tragge’s irreverent reference to his profession.

As the fast moving scout craft approached the foothills, Dr. Hadje slowed and dropped elevation, skimming very close to the jungle canopy. He trusted General Tragge to keep his word, but as a precaution, he made sure any radar trail would end somewhere over the jungle.
While the general knew about a large colony of humans living in the Central Jungle, the doctor and Benjamin conveniently left out the part about them living in caves. If the general’s troops went looking for free humans, they would be scanning a lot of empty vegetation.

Shilgar was first to greet Benjamin at the entrance to the big cave.

“Elders are waiting in the council room. I’m getting ready to go to The Wall for Simon.”

“I’m going to The Wall with you
,” Benjamin said. “Send for Kelly at Ammul’s house. I promised she could return with us. We’ll leave right after the meeting. And, please take my friend here to my quarters. Have our greeters provide him with clothes and a quick orientation. I am sure he will have many questions.” Benjamin introduced their human guest to Shilgar.

Dr. Hadje
overheard the conversation about The Wall.

“
What is this ‘Wall’ that I’ve heard you refer to several times.”

Benjamin felt caught in a deception.
Every promise the doctor made, had been kept during the past two days. It was time to return the trust.

“The Wall is our source of knowledge. We don’t really understand what it is, but from the very beginning of our society,
it has guided us. It provides books, and keeps us informed of current events on Tanarac and throughout the galaxy. It even gives us technology. Our satellite scan detectors came from The Wall. When a new runner enters the jungle, it monitors all Tanarac communications and notifies us. We know about a runner before the report gets to your desk.”

“May I see this wall?”

A Tanarac at The Wall! What would Elders say? And, how will The Wall react?

Benjamin knew the directives and prophecies from Johan Frumm by heart, but he could not recall any guidance for this situation.

“I will present your request to our Elders,” Benjamin replied. “I cannot make such a decision on my own.”

Moments later, he
and the two Tanarac scientists took seats at the table of Elders.

F
ree humans planned for a situation such as this since the beginning. Before Benjamin and Dr. Hadje had left to meet with General Tragge, the human colony set in motion an ancient plan of action. It was now up to the leaders to guide their people accordingly.

In tradition, t
he most senior Elder spoke first.

“Thank you, my friends, for your friendship over these many years. I have enjoyed a good life, and as agreed, I will take the volunteer group to the pickup site for the quarry destination. I hope we all meet again. May you all walk in the sun.”

Benjamin asked, “Were you able to get a thousand volunteers?”

“Oh yes,
we had far more volunteers than we need. I culled out younger men and women. If we’re going to lose a thousand of our people to the quarries, then we need to keep those with best reproductive potential for the Deep Hides.”

He
addressed another of the Elders.

“Keelon, have you started the migration to deep cover?”

“Yes, we sent advance parties to clear route holes and open long-term storage. We may be there for quite a while. A little over two thousand people are preparing for the Deep Hide. Some have already begun the journey under leadership of my assistant.”

Benjamin was pleased. His fellow
Elders exhibited a high level of organization.

“Have we recalled our scouts?”

“Yes, most of them already arrived, and all scout bases have been sealed. Our scouts were upset to learn that they were excluded from the volunteer group.”

The free human leader
nodded with understanding.

“I expected that response, but their knowledge of the jungle is far too valuable to lose them to the quarries. After our people enter Deep Hides, only scouts have the skill to venture out without being detected.”

Dr. Hadje observed with great fascination as the humans executed a detailed plan with precision and forethought. Upon exiting the Elders council, he watched in amazement as two separate gatherings of free humans milled about.

One group
of a thousand prepared for captivity, willing to surrender their personal freedom so that the second group could remain safely hidden in secret mountain caves. He wished there were a way to demonstrate this selfless human spirit to his fellow Tanarac politicians.

Surely,
this would soften their stance,
the doctor thought.

“Dr. Hadje, the Council has approved your request to visit The Wall.” Benjamin’s voice startled the scientist out of his fascination with the events unfolding before him. “We leave shortly. Your assistant, Dr. Lillip, will remain here with my staff.”

They stood near the entrance to the tunnel of The Wall and watched as some people cried, sharing last moments with friends or loved ones, while others donned heavy backpacks for the journey to secret new homes, known only to a few leaders. A steady stream of humans and hicays began departing on two different paths. One led to a life in hiding, the other to bondage.

“Admiral Paad, we lost contact with two scout ships.”

“Were they running proximal
sectors?”

“No,
sir. They were in zones T-fourteen and T-four.” The executive officer anticipated his boss’s concern. “Sir, an enemy fleet would need more than four battle groups to span that much space. It’s gotta be an electronics failure or maybe a gravity feedback loop.”

The admiral
looked at a three-dimensional image of their planetary system suspended in the air at the front of his bridge. Binary suns and three major planets appeared in the center with five thick rings of asteroids, layered beyond them.

Evenly—
spaced grid lines started at the center of the image and extended outward into space as far as the image allowed. This grid divided local space into clearly marked sections. At the outermost edge of each sector, a single white dot marked the present location of the admiral’s scout ships. Two zones where the scout ships went missing were filled with a dim green warning light that flashed, and there were no white locator dots.

The scan operator briefed his commander
while they stood together, studying the grid.

“Sir, we sent out thirty-six
, deep-recon scout ships. All reached maximum range without incident, but when they activated return vectors, we lost contact with two scouts.” The technician pointed at the two flashing quadrants.

Admiral Paad’s executive officer added, “Sir, we didn’t detect any weapon signatures on long
-range scanners. Their nav-beacons just stopped sending. We scrambled rescue barges.”

The
admiral paced slowly back to his command station with his executive officer following obediently. He stopped abruptly, just short of his command seat, and turned to face his first officer.

“Commander, what is the first rule if you were trying to conceal a fleet in deep space?”

“Avoid contact, sir, at all costs.” The officer gave the textbook answer.

“And, what would you do if a scout ship stumbled onto your group?”

“I’d have no choice but to jam his signals and take him out, but if that happened, we would have picked up Heptari weapon signatures. Deep-scanning markers didn’t detect anything.”

“Correct. But, what if you found a way to remove that recon ship without weapon fire? How would that be interpreted by the fleet that sent out the scout?”

The admiral followed some line of reasoning, but his executive officer was puzzled by the direction of the questioning.

“Obviously,
sir, they would send out another scout ship or a rescue barge. I’ve already ordered the barges. Would you prefer I send out another scout ship, instead?”

Admiral Paad looked out his command portal into the quiet blackness of deep space.

“So far, Commander Kif, we have been completely predictable.”

The
admiral glanced at the bank of individual sector monitors. Nothing unusual appeared on their screens. Distant stars, returning scout ships and a few random gravity distortion bands were all common images in deep space. The admiral suddenly began giving a rapid sequence of commands.

“Recall the barges
from Sectors T-fourteen and T-four. Move all supply ships inside the asteroid belt. Contact our scouts in the contiguous sectors to those missing craft. Have them launch all their x-drones into the medial return points for those two quadrants. Link the x-drones with a narrow band, encrypted signal and launch a spread of twenty-four of those experimental Halyn Mines into each quadrant. Cross-connect the mines with the navigation programs in the x-drones and monitor those links.”

The weapons operator smiled
. “Building a little net, sir?”

“Keep an eye on those links, Mundey. I want to know if any link fails
, even a millisecond. Get me General Tragge.”

A palpable tension grew on the bridge despite there being no sign of the enemy. Soon, Admiral Paad and
the general assessed the situation.

“Yeah, me too, Byn.
What little hair I have left on my head is telling me a lot more than those scanners are. I had my comm people link this command deck to your War Room in case things heat up out here. You should be able to see and hear everything that’s going on. I’ve got a hunch we’ll be too busy to be sending reports.”

A wall of monitors in
the War Room came to life with pictures transmitted from the 9
th
Battle Group. Some showed methodical drills of fighting ships practicing attack formations, while other screens illustrated tactical data from Battle Group satellites. Odd rows of white dots twisted in some kind of synchronized pattern inside the two flashing sectors. They moved rapidly and turned each time they reached an invisible barrier defined by the limits of the flashing areas.

One of General Tragge’s aides
in the home world command center was no stranger to space weaponry.

“
Sir, are those space mines? I thought mines stayed dormant until a proximity sensor tripped their engines.”

The general tapped on
e finger on his armrest as he studied the screen.

“I’m not sure what Admiral Paad has come up with
, but I wouldn’t want to be the Heptari who discovers it first.”

Everyone laughed
while the general turned his attention back to the admiral.

“Lorm, the rest of the fleet is assembling at Wallow Minor. I can’t send you any of their heavies
, yet. I need them to protect the spaceport. As soon as few more Battle Groups arrive, I’ll send you reinforcements. Until then, you’re all we’ve got. Any word on those missing scouts?”

“Nothing
. We’re launching a fresh wave of scouts now but I’m not sending any more into sectors T-four or T-fourteen. Let the Heps think we’re confused, or better yet, timid. Byn, I’ve gotta go.”

“Good luck,
Admiral. Wish I could be there with you and your spacers.”

General Tragge genuinely longed to be in space with his fleet, instead of watching from Tanarac. The
general left the War Room while his staff monitored the 9
th
Fleet. He was not young anymore. Having been up most of the night with Dr. Hadje took its toll. The tired officer was soon deep asleep on the couch in his personal office.

A young Tanarac woman sat gently on the bed next to the general. She unbuttoned his shirt and loosened his belt. His eyes still closed,
the general could not remember the last time he smelled the intoxicating aroma of Tarndill perfume, the same fragrance his wife used to wear. How he missed her.

He opened his eyes, curious about th
e sweet smell.

“Ara-lyn!”

She silenced him with a single finger across his lips.

“Hello, Byn. I’ve missed you.”

The stunned general threw his arms around his wife.

“I miss you so much, Ara. I’m so sorry. I had no way of knowing about that
—”

“It was not your fault,” s
he said and returned his embrace, holding him tightly with her face pressed into his neck. Her warm breath felt good on his bare shoulder.

General Tragge continued to blame himself, “I should never have let you go on that expedition. Supernovas are too unpredictable. I knew better. I should have
—”

“It was not your decision
,” she interrupted him firmly, yet lovingly. “We both knew the risks of my scientific studies.”

Ara-lyn gently rubbed his back while in his arms.

“You were a wonderful husband and father to our children. I love you for that.”

Byn
Tragge gently pushed her back so his eyes could take in her beauty. Her hair seemed longer than he remembered. Its light blue ringlets fell over her shoulders, cascading over her breasts, almost touching her waist sash. She seemed more beautiful, in this moment, than ever before.

“General
, General Tragge! Wake up, sir. The 9
th
made contact!” The general’s personal aide shook him out of his dream.

“How long was I asleep?”

The general stole a glance at the picture of his wife on his desk as he slipped into his boots.

“Six hours, s
ir. Heptari ships just made contact with the 9
th
. We’re following it on Admiral Paad’s link.”

The general
hurried to the War Room. As he entered, radio communications from an excited pilot to the admiral’s battle group filled the room.

“They were all around me
. Hundreds of Hep Slegs, at least forty Goloy-class mediums, and I counted eleven heavies before they spotted me. Trying to outrun their perimeter fighters. Hold on, they got a lock on me!”

A loud crackling noise rang across the War Room.

“That was close. Shields holding. I’m coming in hot on a close bypass vector. You guys got any bored fighters around there? I need help.”

“Roger, Scout T-four,
” the reassuring calm of a military space coordinator responded. “I’ve got fighters on an intercept course. Maintain present vector. Drop out of grav inversion on my mark. Three, two, one . . . now.”

A small spacecraft suddenly appeared on one of the monitors. As quickly as it appeared, three slightly larger alien craft emerged from a gravity fold right behind it.
Trailing enemy ships fired particle beams at the scout vessel. Its shields glowed brightly with each pulse from the Heptari cannons.

“Scout T-four, this is
Interceptor, Talon One. Got you covered, little buddy. Come to vector sequence five, five, eight.”

The nimble scout craft made a hard turn to the right, catching the Heptari fighters by surprise. As the heavier enemy ships powered to regain firing solutions, two Tanarac fleet fighters
of the Talon One Group dropped in behind them.

“Talon One to Heptari vessels. Break off your attack, or you will be destroyed.”

There was no answer. The lead Heptari ship began firing on the scout ship as soon as it regained firing solutions.

“
Heptari vessel, this is Talon One. Cease fire, immediately!”

Again, no answer.

“On my mark.” The lead fighter pilot maneuvered close behind one of the Heptari ships while his wingman lined up on the second ship. “Fire!”

Both Tanarac fighters unleashed their weapons directly into engine portals of the two Heptari aggressors. For a brief second, energy pulses deflected off rear shields of the enemy vessels, but weak Heptari aft-shields quickly failed and both
invader ships exploded.

The remaining Heptari fighter ignored the danger and continued its relentless pursuit of the small scout ship. Tanarac fleet fighters avoided the wreckage of the two destroyed ships,
and closed on the last aggressor. Their weapons fired simultaneously, and it burst into thousands of pieces.

“There y
ou go, Scout T-four. That a little better?”

“Thanks, Talon One. Scout T-four to Command
, downloading scanner data immediately. You guys have one hell of a big enemy fleet out there, and they’re coming this way fast.”