The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (29 page)

Turning, Prince
Brollen headed toward his quarters. He had much to think about. He had some
concern over what would happen to him when he returned and reported this disaster.
He had just lost a mother ship with a considerable amount of harvested food on
board. There was a chance, a small one at least, that, upon his return to the
Conclave Habitat, he could face deletion. He had failed in the harvest and, in
doing so, had failed the Vorn race.

Fleet Admiral
Kurt Vickers was in the Command Center of the Lakiam battlecruiser
Aurelia
along
with Mara and Tarnth. Over the last week Kurt had made it a point to take both
on tours of Newton, showing them the people and the relaxed lifestyle most led.
He had also put together a command crew, drawing on experienced people from
across the fleet. He had moved Captain Randson from the
Star Cross
to
the
Aurelia
as its commander. Andrew was currently in Engineering, working
with its crew. Several of Lomatz’s engineers and technicians had agreed to stay
on board the Lakiam vessel to help instruct the new crew on how its systems
functioned.

“Your people
are intriguing,” commented Mara as she showed one of Kurt’s people how the
ship’s advanced sensor systems functioned. “Much different than I imagined.”

“How so?” Kurt
was curious to hear what Mara thought of Newton.

Mara paused,
turning to face Kurt. “Your people are not as barbaric as I expected. This
world, in many ways, is similar to Lakiam. Your people have been careful how
they treat the environment on the planet and wish to live in harmony with
nature. Your cities are well laid out, and your government voices the will of
the people. All are positive indicators of a civilization well on its way
toward becoming a Protector World and eventually an Enlightened one.”

Kurt nodded,
pleased with Mara’s assessment. “Our home world isn’t like this. When we set up
the Newton colony, we took into consideration everything we did wrong on Earth.
We didn’t want to commit the same mistakes here.”

“A wise
decision,” responded Mara as she walked to the navigation console, where
another crewmember was struggling with a hyperjump simulation. “It is the same
with many of the more advanced colony worlds. That’s what separates a race with
the potential to find Enlightenment from one who never will.”

“Are there
older civilizations who never became a Protector World or reached Enlightened
status?”

“Oh, yes,”
answered Mara, nodding her head. “There are many. Some civilizations advance to
a certain stage and stagnate. Numerous small empires are scattered across the
galaxy, some very similar to the Gothan Empire, except they don’t have
Profiteers. They become embroiled in petty wars and lay waste to entire solar
systems.”

“Why don’t the
Protector Worlds become more involved in preventing such acts?” Kurt had known
other small empires were in the galaxy; he just didn’t know a lot about them or
how many there were.

Mara paused as
she considered her answer. “Too many Enlightened Worlds and Enlightened World
colonies need protecting. Some of these empires do occasionally threaten an
Enlightened World system. When that happens, the Protector World responsible
for defending that particular Enlightened species becomes involved. While there
are a lot of Protector Worlds, there are many more Enlightened Worlds and their
colonies.”

“You’re saying
the Protector Worlds don’t have the ships to enforce peace across the galaxy.”
Kurt had thought most of the galaxy was civilized with just isolated pockets,
such as the Gothan Empire, causing trouble.

Mara nodded
her head. “Yes, that’s correct. Many times a Protector World is responsible for
up to one hundred Enlightened World civilizations and their colonies. There are
entire sectors where barbarism prevails, and those areas are avoided.”

Kurt took a
moment to take in all of this and then asked his next question. “How many
intelligent species are there in our galaxy?”

Mara looked to
Tarnth, unsure if she should answer.

“You should be
more concerned about learning the functions of this ship than a galactic
history lesson. Even the youngest Lakiam knows the answer. Since you have
promised to free us after we take care of High Profiteer Creed, I’ll answer.
Across the galaxy are over eight thousand Enlightened World civilizations, with
one hundred and seventy-three Protector World civilizations defending them. In
addition there are twelve hundred small empires, comprising anywhere from ten
to three hundred star systems. Most of these are at a static stage of
development. In the future a few of these may make it to Protector World
status. Plus we can count tens of thousands of what we call barbaric worlds,
planets similar to your Earth. As Mara said, some sectors of the galaxy are deemed
too dangerous to explore or enter.”

“How would you
classify Newton?” Kurt was curious to hear Tarnth’s opinion, as he didn’t voice
it very often.

Tarnth was
silent for a long moment. “You’re in the beginning stages of moving toward
Protector World status,” he answered grudgingly. “If not, I would never have
agreed to teach you how to operate the
Aurelia
.”

An alarm
sounded on the comm console, indicating an incoming message. Mara stepped over
and sent the message to Admiral Vickers, who was sitting in the command chair.

“Admiral, we
may have a problem,” Colonel Simms said hurriedly. “The light cruiser
Justin
exited hyperspace a few moments ago. It came directly from Kubitz. Captain
Edison reports that High Profiteer Creed has disappeared from the Gothan
Empire. Avery Dolman told Marvin Tenner he’s headed here.”

“Damn!” swore
Kurt, his eyes widening in concern. “We’re not ready yet. Does Edison know how many ships High Profiteer Creed has in his fleet?”

“Possibly over
one hundred,” Simms replied. “Dolman says rumors going around Kubitz indicate
four other small Profiteer clans are involved as well as Dacroni Clan Leader
Jarls.”

“All ship
commanders will meet in two hours,” Kurt said. Turning toward Mara and Tarnth,
he asked, “Is the
Aurelia
ready for a battle?”

Tarnth looked
at Mara, who nodded. “If you trust Mara and me to operate most of the systems
with some minor assistance from your crew, we can do it. This ship is highly
automated, and its computer can handle most of what will need to be done.”

Kurt had hoped
for that answer. “Very well, we’ll set out for the Proxima Centauri System
later today.” Kurt just prayed they could get there in time to respond to any
attack in the Solar System. He was deeply concerned that, this time, High
Profiteer Creed would leave nothing behind.

-

On Earth,
President Marlen Stroud sat in the Oval Office of the White House, smoking a
Cuban cigar. A special informant had notified him earlier in the day that High
Profiteer Creed would shortly be returning to the Solar System with a massive
Profiteer fleet. Months back, after returning from Newton, Stroud had been
contacted by several individuals who said they represented Creed’s claims to
Earth’s riches. Stroud had often wondered if these two men were actually from
Earth. He had heard there were many humanoids within the galaxy who could pass
for an Earth Human.

He had worked
out a deal with the two supposed associates of High Profiteer Creed. If he
would identify where all the main caches of Earth’s gold were hidden, High Profiteer
Creed would arrange for Stroud to have absolute control over the planet and the
Solar System once Creed left. Marlen would rule as Creed’s representative with
the agreement that gold would continue to be mined on Earth and 70 percent of
it turned over to the Profiteer on a yearly basis. In return, Creed would leave
a few warships in orbit to ensure the people of Earth obeyed whatever Stroud
demanded and would not nuke the planet.

Standing up,
Stroud walked to the large window overlooking the city. He had brought in more
workers at higher wages to speed up construction. It had been necessarily cut
back on the reconstruction of several bombed-out cities, but he was president,
and his capital must look the part. It wouldn’t hurt if a few lowly civilians
suffered a little while longer.

As he puffed
on his cigar, he thought over what one of Creed’s associates had told him
earlier. The High Profiteer was on his way back to Earth and would arrive in
the next day or two. As long as there was no resistance, everything would be
peaceful. The Profiteers would collect the gold and whatever other valuables
they wanted, and then they would leave.

Stroud nodded
to himself. Former President Mayfield should have worked out such a deal. It
would have saved millions of lives, and the world would have been far better
off.

-

In space, High
Profiteer Creed was growing impatient for the fleet to reach Earth. He hadn’t
revealed to the other clan leaders that he had an inside source who knew where
the main caches of gold were located. Once the fleet arrived above the planet,
Creed would send down some of his small cargo ships to pick up the gold from
the designated locations. The others could scrounge for their gold among the
cities and the countryside. There would be plenty to keep them satisfied. Creed
had furnished the other clan leaders a list of places where gold and other
valuables were likely to be found. However, if Creed’s plan worked, he would
come away from the planet with the majority of the valuable yellow metal.

“We’ll arrive
at Earth in twenty-nine hours,” reported Third Profiteer Holbat from
Navigation.

“Excellent,”
replied Creed. With the size of his fleet and with Clan Leader Jarls’s
twenty-eight battleships, Creed wasn’t even concerned about Fleet Admiral Vickers.
If Vickers decided to show up before the looting of Earth was complete, his
ships would be destroyed. That was one of the reasons Creed had brought such a
large fleet. Nothing would stop the Earth from being thoroughly looted and most,
if not all, of its treasure seized by the Profiteers.

“Some Class
Two Defense Platforms are in orbit over Earth,” Second Profiteer Lantz pointed
out. “Also a number of dual-firing energy cannon satellites.” This information
had been reported back by the two Profiteer escort cruisers sent in to scan the
system several months back.

“They won’t
fire on us,” Creed said confidently. “I’ve already seen to that.” If his
sources on Earth were telling the truth, a Human by the name of Marlen Stroud
was cooperating. He was also the ruler of the most powerful country on the
planet.

“I’m still
concerned about Admiral Vickers,” said Lantz uneasily. “He’s the wildcard in
all this.”

“He doesn’t
have that large of a fleet,” Creed responded, his eyes shifting to Lantz, who
was a constant worrier and very hesitant about taking risks. With the fleet
Creed had, this raid on Earth was a sure thing. “If Vickers had a larger fleet,
he would have brought more warships with him on his last trip to Kubitz. I
don’t believe he will risk a major confrontation with our fleet.”

“Perhaps,”
Lantz said doubtfully. “But don’t forget about what happened in the Julbian
System. He had enough ships there to take the system away from us.”

Creed’s eyes
turned red with anger. “We could have defeated Vickers in the Julbian System!
We retreated so as not to take a substantial loss to our profit margin.”

-

Lantz stayed
silent. No point in aggravating the High Profiteer more. Also no point in
mentioning the warships and the cargo vessels lost in that encounter, particularly
the two largest cargo ships. The encounter with Vickers had been very
expensive. If Creed really wanted to destroy Vickers and his ships, that might
have been the best opportunity.

-

Fleet Admiral
Aaron Colmes gazed at his latest orders from President Stroud with great
concern. Under Colmes’s command he had three battleships and three
battlecruisers. Not a very powerful fleet. But when combined with the two large
Class Two Defense Platforms over Earth and the energy cannon satellites, it was
enough to deter most aggressors, particularly the Profiteers if they returned.
However, the message he had just received from the president made no sense. His
ships were to proceed to Neptune and go into orbit. They were to stay there
until otherwise ordered. If unknown ships were detected dropping from
hyperspace into the Solar System, he was to take no aggressive action.

With a deep
sigh, he folded his arms across his chest and stood in the Command Center of the
Atlas
, wondering what this meant. He still felt guilty about being
put in charge of the fleet, particularly after Fleet Admiral Tomalson had fled
the system with the
Retribution
, three other battlecruisers, and several
cargo ships. All caused by the changes in government in the North American
Union. He had known Marlen Stroud for years. They were not close friends, but
Stroud had helped in advancing Aaron’s military career. Aaron had never felt
comfortable with some of the things Stroud asked of him. Most of the time it
was small favors, like inside information on military maneuvers or what the
fleet’s current status was. Stroud had helped him to move up rapidly through
the chain of command.

“What do you
think is going on?” asked Tamara Scott. She was a talented XO and very confused
about the current political situation on Earth.

“I don’t know.
We’re supposed to take the fleet to Neptune and stay there until we receive
additional orders.”

Tamara
frowned, shaking her head. “Sounds like we’re being sent out of the way where
we can’t interfere with anything. Will you obey the orders? We’ll be leaving
the system nearly defenseless.”

Colmes nodded
his head in agreement. “Retreating is dangerous, but we’re paid to follow
orders. Let’s get the fleet moving to Neptune.” Then as an afterthought, he
added, “Take the fleet to Condition Three just in case.”

“Yes,
Admiral,” Captain Scott replied. “I think that’s a wise decision.”

-

A few minutes
later the fleet was underway, leaving the Solar System wide open to attack.
Only the defense platforms and energy cannon satellites still defended Earth.
As long as the two defense platforms were intact, they should deter any
aggression toward the planet.