What can she possibly add during a battle? Shell only be in danger.
We dont know the role she plays in this but we know she must be there. Director, this is not an opinion of our group, it is a decision.
Do all of you agree? Misty asked and all six members stood up and nodded.
Admiral Kosiev, I want steps taken in the planning of this venture to insure their safety. I am going to hold you personally responsible for keeping them alive.
Kosiev looked at Tag and Danielle and said, Madam Director, how am I going to order two people around who outrank me?
Misty smiled and said, No one said your job was going to be easy. Im holding you responsible.
Kosiev looked at the Director and then at Tag and Danielle who were both smiling and said, Oh thats marvelous. Isnt this going to be a hoot.
State Leader Stein was looking over a diagram of a machine in his office and discussion it with the Alliances head scientist. He glanced out the window and there was another winter storm brewing. Then he turned back to the scientist that was talking in terms he had no idea what they meant. Just a minute; in laymans terms, describe what this machine of yours does, he said.
Vew Nicht looked at the State Leader and thought a minute and said, The screen around the planet that you want to get thru is basically a battery, it absorbs and uses power. The only way to weaken a battery is to drain it. This machine will absorb energy from the screen and dissipate it into space. We build this device into 100 of your largest ships and park them outside the limit of their beam weapon which is the distance the Warlords ship was from the planet during the last attack. We then hit the planets screen with our energy displacement beam and start discharging their screen which will then cause that screen to fail and then planet will be open to attack.
Stein looked at the scientist and asked, Are you sure this will work?
Im sure it will drain energy from their screen. We analyzed the makeup of the screen from the Warlords recordings and designed the machine accordingly.
So you need 100 dreadnaughts to build to your specifications?
Thats right
Well I want you to equip 800 ships with your device. Will that drain their screen faster?
Eight times faster, the stunned scientist said.
How long will it take you to have them ready?
Between 25 and 30 rotations to complete the refit, State Leader.
Well plan our invasion for 30 rotations from tomorrow. Lets end this Human problem once and for all.
Kosiev looked at Tag and said there are four major controls you need to be familiar with; formation control which gives choices of five different ones, speed control for the fleet, weapons activation which turns on the sensors that control the firing systems, and the escape button which will cause all ships to spread out, run, then Jump back to Earth when clear. The ships will fight themselves, however they just cant be programmed to run in and out of each others screens. That type of programming is too complicated for remote control systems. This should accomplish the end result you want to achieve; their screens will eventually overload and the ship will explode. This small screen keeps track of how many ships are still fighting. It will start with 640 and reduce by one each time they destroy one of our ships. Over 40% of these ships have sustained damage in battle but have been refurbished. The Alliance should see the blast burns on their skins and figure that were down to our last inventory. Do you have any questions?
No, I just need the diagram of what the five markings on the formation dial line up with.
Ok, Ill get that to you. One of our clan brothers commercial ships have dropped one of our passive sensor buoys in the main Alliance Governments system. Its been sending a feed of all ship traffic around the planet and so far there has been no real significant buildup of ships.
Im hoping that that they will form up outside the jump limit this time, Tag said. I think that after all the commercial ships that were made to wait for six days last time will make them reconsider blocking their planetary approaches. If they stay inside the star drive limit, then this plan wont work. We need to be able to jump into the middle of their fleet to cause enough confusion to make it worthwhile. If were going to basically throw away 600 ships we need to extract a good price for them.
Youre right. Couple that with the weapons systems being tied to sensors and we have to be close. I understand that our engineers have set up every ship to fire their full complement of needles upon emergence so we for those to be effective we have to be close, Kosiev said.
Do you think they will move away from our breakout points? Tag asked.
Everyone has seen what happens when two ships occupy the same place at the same time and no one wants to be the victim of that; there wouldnt even be atoms left after that explosion. They are going to have so many ships coming in that Im hoping they just think some idiot didnt get the right coordinates. They should just move a short distance away.
What pattern are we jumping them in on?
Weve decided to jump them in the shape of a hollow sphere and have them fly toward the command ship, which would be you, in the center of that sphere and form up on you. That should give you some space to operate and move your formation to the most target rich area. Mr. Gardner, is your wife still going with you?
Tag looked at Kosiev and shrugged his shoulders. Sung Lea insists that it is absolutely necessary in order for us to survive as a species. I dont like it and I dont understand it but I will comply with it.
Kosiev looked at Tag for several moments and Tag said, Youre wondering how Im going to get us out of this situation once the groad hits the reactor, right?
Right, I know you must think you can or theres no way youd allow her to go. You just wouldnt use this plan if you thought she would be in danger.
Obviously, you saw what happened on Ross. Im going to use the same technique in Alliance Central. I believe we will survive. I am going to ask you to do one thing for me.
Whats that?
I want you to have a ship waiting at these coordinates. I want only you and enough people to fly the ship on board; wait for us to arrive there. Make sure that you trust the people you bring with you and dont give up if were running a little behind schedule.
Kosiev took the coordinates and entered it into his com. Ill be there; make sure you are. Then he offered his hand and Tag shook it.
Chapter 8
Tgon-Gee looked at the Humans across the table from him as they were greeted by the Fifteen Clan leaders of the Cainth. He saw that there was joy at seeing each other and he found this unsettling because he knew all the efforts the Cainth had made to destroy the Humans in the past. How can they forget so easily? He was a great judge of peoples expressions and he could tell that these were sincere. If the Alliance knew this relationship existed, they would destroy the Cainth down to the last child. No one would be allowed to live. How could they run this kind of risk? Its just been plain luck that the Alliance had not sent a representative to check out what was happening in this system. Who do I side with? Do they have a chance against the 820 races of the Alliance? Well, thats why Im here.
Terl looked around the room and told everyone to take their places and then introduced everyone and gave a brief description of their duties. He then looked at Tgon-Gee and said, Im sure you have some questions you want to have answered. Why dont you begin, Excellency?
Tgon-Gee looked at his Fleet Admiral and then said, Im at a loss to understand why you Humans did not destroy the Cainth Empire when you had the opportunity especially after they killed your colonists. They have also tried to destroy your species for more than 200 cycles. How could you even start to trust them?