Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron (42 page)

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Authors: Ben Winston

BOOK: Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron

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"With the permission of this body, I will direct my special operations teams to seek out these people. We have left this issue to you unless it involved a weapon of mass destruction, we don't have the option of playing with these people anymore. The attacks have to stop now. If this redirects their hatred onto us, then so be it; at least they'll be alive to hate us."

"Admiral, are you ordering us to stop fighting each other?" the Ambassador from Sri-Lanka asked.

Ian shook his head. "No, I can't give you orders; you are a civilian authority. I am strongly suggesting you stop fighting as well as telling you that if you do chose to fight, it will be my troops you will be fighting, not your nominal enemy."

"That's kind of a dichotomy, Admiral. You say you won't give us orders, yet you will be installing defenses, shelters, and God only knows what else anywhere on the planet you want to. How is that not giving us orders?" the American Ambassador asked chuckling.

Ian smiled at him sardonically. "That's true, I guess. However, unless otherwise requested, every installation we place will be removed once the emergency is over and the area returned to its previous condition. I know it's been a major deal to you folks, but we still won't be allowing our technology into your hands. Anything containing advanced technology that we leave under your care will self-destruct if opened or removed from the location it was installed at. The emergency kits being assembled and shipped to us by the Benesians will only have food, water, and basic emergency medical supplies. The shelters will have stand-alone powers systems as well as a replicator, but if either are removed or misused, they will be deactivated or destroyed. I know that’s frustrating to you, but we are trying to protect you here, not give you the technology to kill yourselves once all this is over."

"I think we are starting to realize that, Admiral," the Secretary General replied. "What of our troops? Will you assist us with arming and armoring them?"

"Do you mean UN troops or the separate nation's troops?" Ian asked.

"Do you consider there is a difference?" the French Ambassador asked.

"Yes and no, I suppose. Look, if you give us troops to train, we'll be keeping them. We'll need as many able bodies as we can for both the Marines as well as the ships being built. We'll be increasing our recruiting efforts considerably on planet for the next few months. As for giving your troops weapons and armor; I'll have to think about that. If a way can be found that would allow us to increase their protection while still keeping the tech our secret, we’’ll do it. But I can't promise it's possible," Ian replied.

"As I understand it then, you are going to enforce a ban on fighting while guaranteeing national sovereignty. While you do that, you will be installing weapons systems and defensive shields in our countries to protect our people from the coming attack. To that end, you are asking us to use the resources of the UN as well as each of the member nations to support this effort. You are also asking us to approach the non-member nations and try to get them on board with this plan as well?" The Secretary General asked.

Ian nodded. "In addition to the weapons systems, shields, and shelters, we will also be building several fighter and Marine bases in strategic locations around the world. We already have one base on planet, in international territory, that will be used to support our construction efforts until the other bases can be built and brought online. We are also asking you to supply some of your military personnel for us to train as defensive crews and soldiers, but remember those will become
Terran
troops. They will be fighting for the planet, not just one of the countries."

"As usual, you've given us much to think about and discuss Admiral. Please let us deliberate and see if we cannot reach agreement on what you have asked of us," the Secretary General asked.

"That's all I ask. Thank you for your time this day. Ambassadors, please treat this issue with urgency; the faster an agreement can be reached, the more we can get done to protect our world," Ian replied and bowed to them. "Good day."

Cindy walked beside him as he left the Council room. "Long one today; do you think it'll do any good?"

"I hope so, Cin; we need their help and cooperation this time. If they don't give it, we could lose the planet," Ian said softly. "We can't afford the games they've played in the past; this time it's for all the marbles. I just hope they'll see that."

That night, Ian stood in his darkened living room looking out at the planet. Star Dancer was in high orbit and the European continents had just rolled into view. How was he going to protect that world from the forces coming to destroy it? Would he look out at it someday and not see the green and blues, but the brown of a dead world? Did they have enough time to build up enough force to stop the murder of the planet?

"You're stressing out again," Beth said quietly coming up behind him. The family had gone to bed a couple of hours ago and the apartment was dark.

Ian sighed and took a drink of his beer. "Probably. I've got a few things to think about I guess."

She nodded as she sat down on the small couch facing the window. "You know, if a problem is keeping you awake, then you should try talking to someone about it. Letting it fester won't help you any."

Ian nodded. "Yeah, I remember. I don't think this is festering so much as it's just so large it takes more time to think it through."

"I don't see it as being overly large. Yes, the scale of events is massive, but the issue itself isn't all that big," Beth replied.

"Really?" Ian snorted and looked back at her. "How do you see it then?"

"We are to defend a specific target from destruction by the Empire. That's it. One sentence, nothing more nothing less," Beth replied.

Ian chuckled softly and shook his head. "The 'target' you so blithely mentioned has twelve billion souls living on it. That isn't counting the rest of the sector. I just can’t see that as anything but large."

Beth nodded and stood. She held out her hand to him. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Ian sat his beer down and took her offered hand. She led him back to the kids' room. They were all still young enough to still use the nursery even though that would be changing soon. Beth opened the door and led him into the room. She stopped in the center and pointed to each of the sleeping children. "This is the true scale of the problem facing you. Not twelve billion, not three million; five. The target you have to protect is right here in this room. If you do that, and focus on just that, the rest will take care of itself."

"Beth, it's not that simple…" Ian began.

She put a finger over his mouth. "Yes Ian, it is. Just think about it for a few minutes. If you focus your mind on protecting the people in this room, the rest of this issue will solve itself. I actually saw this in a movie, but you know, it's the truth; trying to save the entire planet is impossible; it'll drive you mad. So don't try to save the planet; try to save these five people. That's a problem you can get your mind around; that's a point for you to focus on."

Ian giggled. "Hon, if it were just these five little ones, I'd bundle them up and run like hell. I can't do that with our people."

"Why not? We have a year to evacuate. Surely we could get a lot of people out of here by then," Beth asked.

Ian shook his head. "It's the people that are the target, not the system. If you look at what Janet said, the people have to be the target, otherwise they would simply try to take the system, not destroy it completely. If we evacuated, they would just keep hunting us. No, this has to be done here."

"Okay then, bust the big problem into a series of smaller ones and deal with them one at a time," Beth suggested as they walked quietly back out to the living room.

Ian nodded. "That's pretty much what I've been trying to do. My mind just keeps refocusing on the big picture; so, all I can do is keep trying."

"So why are you still awake tonight?" Beth asked.

"Thinking of the little problems and which one needs to be done next," Ian grinned at her.

"Is it really going to be that bad Ian?" Beth asked.

Ian nodded slowly. "It'll probably be the worst battle in the history of this entire war, Beth. It'll be so bad, I'm sure the religious nuts will be out in force once this gets out. Unfortunately, they won't be wrong; this is going to very much be biblical in proportion.

"What was it called in the Bible? Wasn't the ‘end of days’ war named after some small village in the Middle East somewhere?" Beth asked.

Ian nodded. "Yeah it was. The name will definitely apply to what's coming; Armageddon."

About the Author

Ben Winston (1965 - ?) was born in Iowa and grew up in Minnesota on the family dairy farm. Upon reaching adulthood, he joined the United States Army as a communications technician. Before getting out of the military, he decided to go to school for computer electronics.
Shortly after getting out of the military, and after getting a new job with an over-seas company, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. A month after beginning the new job, he was laid off due to budget over-runs on the project he was hired for. Upon returning to the United States, he had difficulty maintaining employment because of the chronic illness.
He began writing as a form of stress release, from being home bound and not being able to work, and found he liked writing erotica. Ben wrote a trilogy called the Talosian Chronicles (Currently in rewrite to remove the graphic sex and finalized his vision of the story). The first book, Star Dancer, won awards and was nominated for many others by the online communities where it was posted.
Ben Winston returned to school for literature, after completion, he began writing professionally. Being an avid fan of science fiction he focused on this genre. He was, and still is, influenced and inspired by Gene Roddenberry, Anne McCaffery, David Weber, Isaac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury. Some of his favorite movies and TV shows are; Battlestar Galactica (both versions), Andromeda, Star Trek, Firefly, Star Wars, and many of the B-rated movies that were actually box-office bombs.

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