Dont thank me; I was doing my best to hit you.
Esa noticed that when Colonel Ortiz released the rock his vision was blocked by his body making the roll. Colonel, are you sure that he made the throw the way youre describing? It looks impossible to hit that gunman anywhere, much less in his heart.
Inspector, theres nothing else he could have done in the time he had. And yes, that throw is impossible, but theres one thing that youre missing.
Whats that?
Remember, he threw the serrated knife into the first gunmans eye socket with his right hand, and he hit a moving target the size of a dime. He was holding in the other knife in his left hand, which means he made that blind throw left-handed.
Holy groad, said Esa.
Exactly, said Colonel Ortiz.
Colonel, do you know anyone that could have done what youve seen here tonight? Major Daniels asked.
Major, I have won six planetary hand-to-hand competitions over the last fifteen years, and I know the other nine winners. I am not bragging when I tell you that I am considered the best at hand-to-hand combat on the planet. However, the other nine winners and I could not come close to doing what happened here tonight. We could, perhaps, take out the first two attackers, but catching that first knife before it hit the ground, then finishing a roll holding both knives; thats impossible. Something else that I should tell you: the victim hit two targets the size of a dime while avoiding knife thrusts and gunshots in less than three seconds. No one, and I do mean absolutely no one, that Ive ever known or seen could do that. And remember, one of those throws was made with his non-dominant hand.
Colonel, are you saying that this was done by more than one person? Esa asked.
I would really like to believe that if for no other reason than to save my ego, but its just not possible.
Why not, Colonel? Major Daniels asked.
The other persons would have to come into the fight, help the victim accomplish this, and then disappear within ten seconds. Remember, all this happened within the ten-second camera sweep. Also keep in mind that these four were killed by someone directly in front of them. Also, the cameras did not see any other people there but these six. No, it had to happen as I described it. If someone were to tell me that someone did what weve seen tonight, I would never believe it. Even now theres a part of me that refuses to accept it, but I think thats out of jealousy. Whoever did this is much better than I am. I wish I had never seen this because this humbles me.
So we have some kind of hand-to-hand superman, Danielle stated.
Miss Ash, whoever did this has the finest eye, hand, and body control of anyone on the planet. Quite frankly, I wouldnt want to get within arms reach of this person, Colonel Ortiz said.
Its worse than that, said Major Daniels. He also has a way to make himself invisible.
Even Colonel Ortiz looked dumbfounded.
Chapter 8
A dmiral Dorg sat across the table from the Glod ambassador and could sense his hostility. The Glods ridge just above his eyes was a light orange color, which indicated anger moving toward rage. If it turned deep orange then the Glod was probably going to attack and he was wearing the long ceremonial swords. Even though it was not easy to see emotion on a Glods face due to little or no animation of their features, the crest gave them away. Dorg could easily sense the ambassadors anger. After the two ships that had set the ambush had been destroyed, the Alliance sent investigators to determine what happened. Their findings were that the two ships had destroyed each other.
We agreed to help you and you destroyed our ship, the ambassador said. You will pay a heavy price for this insolence. The Glods face resembled that of a human of Asian descent and everything about this angry Glod official screamed danger. His seven-foot height and five hundred pounds of mass appeared ready for lethal action.
Sir, we did not destroy your ship. I assume you saw the investigators report.
The ambassador said, Yes, I did. He had been surprised when the Cainth admiral came into his presence without arms or bodyguards. The ambassador had almost killed the admiral on sight, but seeing he was unarmed, had no bodyguards, and came in with all four arms crossed to show nonaggression caused him to pause. He respected the admirals bravery in coming alone. There werent many that would confront an angry Glod.
Then you know that they concluded that our ship was destroyed first by missiles from your ship. Not by much, but our ship died first.
The ambassador looked at Dorg and said, I thought your ship was going to be hidden and undetectable. How could we have attacked the ship if we couldnt see it?
You couldnt.
The Glod was surprised by the admirals answer. He looked out the window at the five dreadnoughts escorting his ship and took a deep breath. He pulled out a chair, sat down, and said, Then what happened?
I dont know, Dorg said. I dont know how, but the Earth ship detected our ship. Listen to this. And he played a recording of a transmission that was made to the Glod cruiser from the concealed Cainth ship.
Jump now! Jump now. I dont know how but weve been detected. Theyre moving toward our position. Coordinates follow.
Jumping now, they heard the Glod commander say.
Our ship was at least sixty thousand segs from the route the Earth ship normally took on its patrol, Dorg said. All systems were down except for minimal life support, and you know that you would have to be right on top of the ship before you could see it. One thing we know, the Earth ship detected ours at a tremendous distance.
Detection is not destroying, said the ambassador.
No, its not. We werent able to salvage much from the wreckage. It appears our ship was hit by at least ten heavy missiles. It also appears that the ships screens werent up. Ambassador, how long do you think it would take to raise defensive screens if you were powered down?
The ambassador thought a moment and said, Not long at all. It would take less than ten sems to power up the reactors, and the screens would then be immediately available, however, not at full power. It would take less time than it would take you to get up and walk out of this room.
Then it begs the question, Dorg said. Why werent our screens up when your missiles hit? The Earth ship was a long distance from our ship when it was detected. They should have had plenty of time to power up and raise screens if the humans got too close. It would take twenty sems for the star drive to power up from being completely powered off.
It doesnt make sense, does it? the ambassador agreed. Then he leaned back and said, Something else is not right. Our ship was also hit with its screens down and it was at full power when it jumped.
Theres something else that disturbs me, Ambassador, Dorg said. The investigators report says that the Earth ship detected the explosions, then jumped to the scene. Theyre trying to make us think that they werent present or involved in what happened. We know differently.
The ambassador said, We dont have any proof that they were there other than your cruisers transmission.
Dorg pulled a photograph from a folder and handed it to the ambassador. You heard the transmissions between our ships saying that the human ship was coming at them, and theres one other thing: our ship was so badly damaged that any recordings it made were destroyed. This is the only thing we were able to salvage from its sensors.
The ambassador looked at the photo and realized that the Cainth were not so paranoid after all. The photo showed a small white ship with ten heavy Glod missiles chasing it.
I believe those are the missiles your ship fired at the Earth ship and the ones that ultimately destroyed our ship, Dorg said. I dont fully understand how it was done, but we can draw some conclusions from this.