Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (12 page)

“Emergence,” Steropes called. “Launching probes.”

“All space fighters launching,” LCDR Brighton added.

“
Minefield!
” the DSO yelled.

Asp 01
launched as soon as the
Vella Gulf’s
systems stabilized from the transit, right into the middle of a minefield. A
large
minefield, Calvin noted. He was an expert on mines, having laid or help lay a number of minefields during his career. The Terran mines were relatively small, massing only about 23 kilograms, including the five kilograms of antimatter that gave them their explosive force. The Mrowry mines were much bigger than their Terran counterparts, massing over 200 kilograms. Calvin didn’t know whether the difference was because they held more explosives, had additional tracking capabilities or whether they incorporated some other offensive or defensive measure...nor did he want to find out. As his fighter separated from the
Vella Gulf,
the bigger ship blinked back into stealth mode, leaving the fighters nothing to look at but the mines. All he could think of was getting a long way from them, as quickly as he could.

“
All Spacehawks follow me,
” he commed as he began a max acceleration transit toward what his sensors said was the closest edge of the minefield. The 11 other space fighters, seeing the threat, turned to follow Calvin’s ship, trying to stay as far away as they could from the mines.

As Calvin evaded the mines, which didn’t seem to be active, he saw the true nature of the threat. Several battleships and a
larger number of battlecruisers and smaller vessels were arrayed around the largest spaceship he had ever seen. It had to be one of the dreadnoughts or super dreadnoughts he had heard of; the craft measured almost two miles in length. He hoped the
Emperor’s Paw
had let the crew aboard the behemoth know that the
Vella Gulf
was coming or this was going to be the end of their mission. With that much firepower aimed at it, he doubted the
Gulf
could even make it back through the stargate before being destroyed. As Calvin’s system registered another stargate activation, the largest vessel began launching missiles.

“S
ir,” said his WSO, Lieutenant Sasaki ‘Supidi’ Akio, “the Mrowry are launching at us.”

“Sir!” the DSO called, “the dreadnought is launching missiles at us!”

“Understood,” said Captain Sheppard. “Rotate the ship. Prepare to launch counter-missile missiles. Let’s try to remember that they’re our friends, even if they don’t know it yet.”

“Most of the
tubes are blocked by the stealth modules, sir!” said the DSO.

“I know,” said Captain Sheppard. “We’ll do what we can
to defend ourselves.” He turned to the communications officer. “See if you can contact the
Paw
,” he directed. “As soon as you can, please.”

“
Terran Ship
Vella Gulf
and all of its fighters, this is the Mrowry dreadnought
Night Hunter,” commed a voice from the giant spaceship. “
Please vacate the area around the stargate while we deal with the Ssselipsssiss that followed you through it. I say again, please vacate the area around the stargate so we can deal with the ships that followed you through it.
” The voice sounded like it was used to being obeyed. As Calvin watched, the missiles from the dreadnought rocketed past his fighter to impact the shields of the battleship that had entered the system behind him. Within seconds, all of the Mrowry ships were firing, and a tremendous amount of ordnance was headed in his general direction.

While Calvin would have liked to
turn and fire the missiles he carried as well, he realized that it was
far
more important to get out of the way of the missiles aimed at the lizard battleship, most of which were larger than his fighter. He hoped the
Gulf
was out of the way. His new hi-def stereo was still aboard it.

The second volley of missiles from the dreadnought knocked down the battleship’s forward shields, and missiles began impacting the front half of the ship. The battleship’s crew was handicapped as they could only employ the missiles and lasers on the front of their ship, its ‘chase’ armament, while the dreadnought and its accompanying ships were already broadside to the battleship and pouring fire
into it from all of their main batteries. Waiting within its effective laser range, the dreadnought began lashing the lizard battleship with its 5-meter aperture grasers and 4.5 meter lasers, quickly rendering the battleship’s chase weapons into scrap metal.

As the fighters cleared the minefield, t
he battleship began to turn, not to the side to unmask its main batteries, but to go end-over-end so that it could begin decelerating. Realizing that it was in an unwinnable fight, its crew was trying to run. They would never get the opportunity, Calvin saw, as the first two mines detonated close aboard. The first mine exploded with a nearly 400 megaton blast that knocked down the battleship’s aft shields; the second wiped out most of its engines and engineering spaces. The salvo of missiles that arrived just after the mines exploded turned the aft section into a pile of junk metal that matched the front of the ship.

As the weapons magazine onboard the battleship blew up, tearing the ship in half, a
Ssselipsssiss battlecruiser emerged from the stargate, followed almost immediately by a second battlecruiser. Seeing the Mrowry fleet arrayed against them, within seconds both flipped end-over-end to flee; however, like the battleship before them, they didn’t get the opportunity. The dreadnought shifted fire smoothly from the remains of the battleship to the first of the battlecruisers. Not built to withstand the sole focus of a dreadnought’s main battery of energy weapons, its shields were overloading before the first round of missiles had even launched. The dreadnought kept up the fire, and the battlecruiser’s shields failed as the first volley of missiles arrived. The battlecruiser’s counter-missile batteries were successful in eliminating several of the dreadnought’s missiles, and several of the other missiles tracked off to obliterate pieces of the battleship that were in their way. The other 25 missiles hit the battlecruiser, wrecking it beyond repair. One of these was a direct hit on the bridge, which eliminated any further central control of the ship’s actions.

The second battlecruiser drew the focus of the Mrowry battleships and battlecruisers. Although their weapons were smaller than the dreadnought
’s, there were more than enough to do the job. Outnumbered more than 10 to one, and outclassed by the three battleships, the battlecruiser’s shields were down within four minutes of entering the system, and the ship was racked by more than 40 anti-ship missiles two minutes after that. With command and control out, and its engineering spaces decimated, its captain did what many previous Ssselipsssiss captains had done when they realized they were in an unwinnable fight. He detonated the core of the ship’s drive system in a massive explosion.

T
he dreadnought continued to punch 16 feet wide holes into the remains of the first battlecruiser for another minute until air and fluids stopped venting from it, and then a pause came over the battle group as it waited to see if any additional ships would come through the stargate. Calvin used the time to look at the 8,200 feet long dreadnought on the WSO’s system. As the massive ship’s capabilities became clear, Calvin looked at Supidi and said, “We have
got
to get some of those for us!”

* * * * *

“It doesn’t look like any more of the
Ssselipsssiss are coming,” noted Captain Sheppard. “Recall the fighters, please, and ask Lieutenant Rrower to report to the bridge.”

“Recall the fighters, aye, sir,”
said Lieutenant Commander Brighton.

“Lieutenant Rrower to the bridge, aye,” added the operations officer. Lieutenant Rrower was the senior Mrowry officer onboard the
Vella Gulf
. Having served in combat with the Terrans on a couple of occasions, he was the logical choice to have onboard the ship as their liaison.

Several
minutes passed by in a tense silence.

“Sir!” the communications officer called. “We are being
hailed by the
Night Hunter
.”

“Put it on the f
ront view screen, please,” said Captain Sheppard. The screen split into two, revealing two nearly identical Mrowry standing on their bridges. Both of them were royalty, as they were completely black in color. The only difference visible between them was that the one on the right wore the uniform of an admiral; the one on the left was Captain Yerrow.

The
admiral spoke first. “Welcome humans to Mrowry space,” it said. “We gave you some time because Captain Yerrow guessed that your Lieutenant Commander Hobbs would be in one of the fighters that you just recovered. Is he currently back and within viewer range?”

“Yes
, I am,” said Calvin, walking onto the bridge along with Lieutenant Rrower. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Hobbs. Is there something that I can do for you?”

“No,” said the
admiral. “There is actually something that I wanted to do for you. I wanted to thank you. As I understand it, I have you to thank for returning my brother to me.”

“It was hardly me alone,” replied Calvin. “The entire crew of the
Vella Gulf
and the
Emperor’s Paw
all did their parts. I didn’t do any more than anyone else.”

“Your modesty becomes you,” replied the admiral; “however,
my brother told me briefly about your idea to use the battleship that was still in the replicator to destroy the lizard battlecruiser. In all of my time fighting them, I have never heard of a Ssselipsssiss ship surrendering before. Well done!”

“Thank you, but I didn’t do that all by myself, either,” said Calvin. “In fact one of your officers, Lieutenant Rrower
, was instrumental in running some of the cabling that made it possible.”

“He did, did he?” asked the admiral. “I will have to speak with him about it and get his side of the story.” The admiral turned to look at Captain Sheppard. “Regardless,
I am Admiral Krrower, and on behalf of the emperor, I welcome you to Mrowry space. You are indeed very welcome, even if you hadn’t come bearing my brother. Any ally in a storm is welcome, and we are in one of the worst storms ever.”

“Thank you,” said Captain Sheppard. “We greatly appreciate you
r taking care of the Ssselipsssiss ships that were following us.”

“It was our pleas
ure,” replied the admiral. “Actually, I was just talking with my brother, and he thinks that by splitting the forces on the other side of the stargate, we ought to be able to go through and finish off the remaining forces there.”

“Without a doubt you could finish off the ships that are there,” said Captain Sheppard
. “There is only a battleship and some battlecruisers remaining. The problem will be the minefield. It was rather extensive when we went through.”

“We have been preparing for an opportunity such as this, and we have many mine clearance craft to send in ahead of us,” said Admiral Krrower. “We just didn’t know what enemy forces
were on the other side of the stargate. Now that we know, and have already destroyed some of them, we are going to go through and capture the system. We have enough mines and other area denial weapons to ensure that once we take that system, barring a major offensive by the Ssselipsssiss, we won’t give it back up to them again. They got the system by surprise; we will
not
let them surprise us again.”

Captain Yerrow finally spoke. “I would like to stay here for the assault. There are many members of my former
battle group whose spirits cry out for revenge. I would like to help get it for them.”

“As much as I would like to go to battle with you again
, brother,” said the admiral, “this is not the time. Word of your demise has already gone back to Grrrnow. You need to get back to the capital as soon as possible, not only for our parents, but also so that all of our subjects can see that the heir is alive and well. Now is not the time to have people restless and worried about the succession. This war is not close to over; there will be plenty of time for us to fight together.”

“You are right, of course, admiral,” said Captain Yerrow. “We will head back now to prepare the way for the humans
.
Emperor’s Paw
, out.” His half of the screen went blank, and the picture of the admiral expanded to fill the screen.

“My brother also told me that you are here to request aid in your fight against the Drakuls,” the admiral said. “I am very much afraid that we do not have any
aid to give, as we do not have enough assets for all of our borders, much less to send to a nation that we did not know existed until today. It is not that I don’t
want
to help you; I just do not have any ships that I can spare. I can, however, send you forward with some indication of our support and good will, as I will send my son along with you. When he’s not getting into trouble, he will serve you well as an ambassador of our civilization. Hopefully he will be able to ease your entry into relations with the Archons. They can be...difficult....at times.”

“Thank you,” said Captain Sheppard. “When will he be available to travel? Our need is urgent
, and we must be off as soon as we are able.”

The admiral looked at Lieutenant Rrower where he stood next to Calvin. “I am ready to go whenever they are ready to leave,”
Lieutenant
Rrower said. “My things are already aboard this ship.”

“Good,” said the admiral with a nod. “Make sure you call your mother when you stop on Grrrnow.”

“Yes, father,” said Lieutenant Rrower.

The admiral looked back at Captain Sheppard. “Good luck,” he said. “I look forward to
speaking with you in better times.”

“Good luck to all of us,” agreed Captain Sheppard. The view screen went blank.

“So, you are the son of the admiral and the grandson of the emperor?” asked Calvin.

“Yes,” Lieutenant Rrower answered with what Calvin had come to
recognize as the Mrowry version of a shrug. “I am 13th in line for the throne. Well, 14th now, since one of my uncles had a son while I was in your system. I’m expendable. I’m looking forward to continuing on with you. Your race is...interesting. You are learning things that we forgot long ago. I think it is time that we relearned some of them.”

“I don’t get it
,” said the ambassador, trying to understand Mrowry society. “If Captain Yerrow is the crown prince, how is it that his younger brother outranks him and can order him around?”

“It is a matter of positional authority,” said Lieutenant Rrower.
“My father is in the military full time and has been promoted past the crown prince, who has other ceremonial duties that take some of his time. Still, we are warriors first, so he must continue to spend time in command to show his worth. If he cannot command the loyalty of a cruiser’s crew, how could he hope to command a nation spanning many star systems?”

“Good point,” said Calvin. “I wonder
how we could get that practice implemented back home?”