Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (3 page)

“Let’s get Atlas involved in this. Atlas, are you listening in?”

“I wasn’t until Danielle thought about the link I gave you. Congratulations on your new baby.”

“Thank you, Atlas,” Danielle thought, “Do you have any ideas about how I get around this issue of playing favorites in selecting the location of my home?”

The ancient Alfont Ship hesitated then said, “Danielle, you must select a location that has a valid reason for its selection. All your subjects want is to know why you chose to be where you are. Is there a place that no other planet can match for its selection?”

Danielle reflected a moment and thought back, “Obviously, Earth, Cainth, and Glod as the original members and founders of the Stars Realm would make sense but selecting any one of them would still cause the other two to feel slighted.”

Tag could sense her frustration and wanted to protect her from bad feelings so soon after Rose was born; he said, “Danielle, I don’t see a way out of this box; you’re just going to have to choose and the others will just have to understand.”

“I guess. Let me think about it.”

“Tag,” Atlas said, “Admiral Dorg is leaving shortly for the Dremels system and is planning to meet with them. It was a good idea to send Klas with him to interpret. I must say that his new ship really impressed the Pydres and the Human Colonists on Ross when he showed up to bring him on board while Dorg was at the hospital.”

“Those ships are very impressive,” Tag thought back.

“That’s it!” said Danielle.

“What’s it?” said Tag.

“Ross will be the new capital and my home.”

Tag and Atlas both were silent for a moment then Atlas said, “Ross is the site of the opening conflict between the Alliance and Humans.”

“It was also where 20% of the colonists were executed by the Cainth and our first marine casualties happened,” Tag added.

“It’s where everything started that eventually led to the formation of the Stars Realm,” Danielle said, “and I can say I’ve chosen it to honor the ones that lost their lives to make everything possible. The Cainth, the Glod, and Humans along with thirty three other planets all lost some of their citizens in that first battle at Ross and the subsequent fleet action. No other planet can say it was first.”

“It’s an excellent choice, Danielle,” Atlas said, “and as undeveloped as it is, no one can accuse you of playing any kind of favorite in its selection.”

“Can you be satisfied living there instead of one of the more developed planets?” Tag asked. “There is little in the way of urban development.”

Danielle smiled, “How long do you think it will remain undeveloped if we announce that my new capital will be located there? It will become the center for all races to come visit. I can see a huge tourist trade just to sightsee. It also has a very small population and I suspect that a lot of our members will have some of their people move to Ross to be near the government center. It also has all the natural resources necessary to build the structures needed as the population grows. We will also make sure we don’t overdevelop like Sten’s planet; we’ll make sure we keep enough agriculture to support our population. Trust me, it will develop faster than we imagine.”

“Well, when are you going to make the announcement?” Tag asked.

Danielle laughed and said, “Soon. We need to start construction on a place to live with a nursery.” Danielle pressed a button on her com and said, “Leila, would you please come back in!”

“Talk with you later, Love,” Tag thought.

“Leila, we are going to make Ross our new capital.”

Leila looked shocked for a moment then said, “No one can argue with that choice with all the new history that was written there. I’ll notify the government on Ross of our selection and swear them to secrecy then I will send Eric to select the site of our government center. Once that’s selected and we’ve guaranteed the property, you’ll need to release a notice to the members of the Realm and let them know of our new home. Danielle, it’s the perfect choice. No one can feel slighted. I suspect a large number of companies will follow you there.”

“I think you’re right.” Danielle felt a warm glow from Rose and she thought, “Oh, you approve also. I love you little one.” The glow got warmer. Danielle closed her eyes and felt her child lying on her breast.

Tag looked at Kosiev and noticed him watching while he was communicating with Danielle. “We’re ready to begin our trial of the new needles,” Kosiev said.

“Let’s see what they can do, what’s the target?”

“It’s the old Los Angeles. We have a new megaship being launched in a week using that name so we’re going to use the old one to see if our needles are stronger. Our old needles would not have penetrated the screens of the Los Angeles.”

“Well, let’s see what we’ve got,” Tag said.

Kosiev turned on his com and said, “Power up the screens and let me know when Los Angles is at full power.”

Ensign Orton said, “Screens are at full power, Sir.”

“Weapons, fire when ready,” Kosiev ordered.

Tag watched the display showing the Los Angeles hidden behind its screen when suddenly an intensely bright light flashed out from the Moscow and hit the Los Angeles. The beam went completely through the ship and out the other side. “Holy Groad,” Tag said.

“I was afraid of that,” Kosiev said. “We shot her through her tail so as not to damage her screen generators. Let’s move away to about 70 miles and give it another try.”

“Admiral, can you use the needles for close in fighting if it goes thru the ship you’re firing at?”

“What we will have to do is make the beam wider. Instead of punching a three foot hole in the target, we’ll have to adjust the needle to a ten foot circumference. That should contain it in the target.”

“If you puncture a ten foot hole in a ship, do you really need to use the hornets?” Tag asked.

“You’ve seen some of those Algean ships. Some of them are more than twenty miles in length. We need that big a hole to get enough hornets inside to blow it up. The hornets are programmed so that the first ones to enter the ship will blow holes through the walls so that the others can scatter throughout the target. Let’s see if this is a good range now. Weapons fire when ready,” Kosiev commanded.

Tag watched the display of the Los Angeles and the intense beam struck her again and burned a hole thru her hull but did not penetrate out the other side. “One more shot weapons but this time I want 10 hornets loaded into the needle; fire when ready.”

Tag saw that the screen was still working on the wounded ship; it was pretty good shooting to miss the screen generators at this distance. Once again the beam struck and burned a hole in the hull but this time the ship exploded into a huge explosion that shot debris in all directions. “What have we learned Admiral?” Tag asked amazed at how fast the hornets destroyed the Battleship.

“Well, it looks like our standard size needle is good on normal ships out to ninety miles. If a standard ship gets closer than twenty miles we will have to expand the needle to thirty feet wide to prevent total penetration. We will write into the needles software the parameters based on distance. There are three hundred needle ports on the new Megaships and there are three gunnery crews handling one hundred each. We need that many because of the numbers of ships we expect to encounter. We also have a brand new weapon that has been developed out of our needle technology.”

“Do I dare ask what it is?” Tag said.

Kosiev said, “Currently, our ships do not use missiles over long distances. We have to wait for the enemy to come into range and fire at them with our screen weapons. Our weapon scientists have developed a pulse penetrator.”

“What is that?”

“It’s similar to a needle. An energy cannon shoots a pulsed beam containing anywhere from 10 to 500 hornets thru our screen and it leaves using a Coronado Cell for propulsion. The hornet’s guidance system inside the pulse will be attracted by any ship that doesn’t have a Coronado Screen within 300 miles. It will penetrate the screen of most ships and release its hornets. This is a shoot and ignore weapon. Like the hornets, it will designate a ship with its Coronado sensors and once illuminated, the other pulsed penetrators will ignore that target and search for one that is not illuminated. If the penetrator doesn’t destroy the ship, once its illumination beam ends, other penetrators will lock on the target.”

“Admiral, can you believe how fast our weapon development is happening. The old Washington is now obsolete and wouldn’t last five minutes against these new vessels. We call it old but its less than two years that the Washington was commissioned. Its eye opening to see where we’ve come is such a short period.”

“Mr. Gardner, I suspect that we will be facing an enemy with more than ten million ships. I’m still worried about whether we can handle them. I’m hoping for faster development and I suspect you are too. They are going to run out of planets to harvest in their galaxy and they will start expanding in to other galaxies. We have to stop that.”

Tag smiled and said, “I think you and I are on the same sheet of music. How many Megaships do we have to take to the system?”

“Only twenty, but we have more than 40 thousand of the old ships converted to Coronado Technology. Why don’t we call a meeting of the leaders and plan our response.”

“Good idea. I’ll contact Terl and Tgon-gee and have them contact all the interested parties.”

“Looks like war again, Mr. Gardner; this time we won’t be taking prisoners.”

A
dmiral Dorg Leaned back in his chair and saw Tresk looking at him. He had just finished the meeting with Captains Ren-Bir and Mikado. All three ships were at battle stations and were waiting for the order to jump. They were going to jump into three other galaxies before jumping to the coordinates that Thomas Gardner had provided for the Dremels system. The jumps would happen in quick succession and Dorg had made it clear that if the Plants were in the Dremels system then the three ships would jump out immediately to the last galaxy. If the Plants were not present then they would begin to attempt to contact the Dremel. Dorg had also made it clear that no one had permission to open fire on any ship that was not a Plant vessel. He thought again about the colonists that had been murdered due to his orders and hoped to try and make up for his mistake by saving the Dremel. “Captain Tresk, notify the other two ships we will be jumping in twenty sems and count it down, please.”

Tresk punched a button on his com and said, “Engage star drives in 5, 4,3,2,1, execute.”

All three ships disappeared then briefly appeared in three other galaxies before breaking out into normal space in a system with a medium size star. “Ships approaching firing weapons, sir,” Glensh the sensor officer reported.

The three megaships were surrounded by 50 ships that had jumped in on their location and were firing beams and nuclear missiles. “Status of our screen Lt. Glensh,” Tresk asked?

“Their weapons pose no danger, sir. They are actually adding power to our screens.”

“How many ships are attacking?” Dorg asked.

Fifty in the initial wave but ninety more have just jumped in and are joining in the attack. They still pose no threat.”

Dorg looked over at Klas whose race had contact with the Dremel before his planet was destroyed by the Algeans and said, “Would you please broadcast a request for a meeting with their leadership; communications broadcast it on the frequency those ships are using to communicate.”

Klas was a Pydres. His species was humanoid in appearance but were dark brown in color and had six fingers on each hand with two opposable thumbs. Their arms were shorter than Humans but had elbows that appeared to be able to rotate 360 degrees. Their black hair was sparse but covered most of their body. The head was large with a brow that had a ridge of raised skin that ran from their eyes to their ears which were small almost bat like. He raised the com to his mouth and began speaking to the attacking ships. The ships continued to attack and it appeared that his message was not getting thru until suddenly the 140 ships stopped firing and surrounded the three Stars Realm ships. A voice came over the communications console and Klas interpreted. “Why have you intruded into our system? We are the Dremel and we are expecting to be attacked by a huge invading fleet; you only endanger yourself if you stay.”

Klas raised the com and said, “We are aware of the enemy coming to your system. They have already devoured my world that you tried to help by warning us of them. We have come to try and help you in the coming conflict and would request a meeting with your leaders.”

There was silence for a few minutes and then the voice said, “My leaders request you come to the planet and they will meet with you there. Only send one ship, the other two will stay here with us.”

“Notify your leaders that we will arrive in five seconds,” Klas said after he heard Dorg tell Tresk to jump to the planet in ten seconds.

The Dremel stuttered, “No one can get there that fast.” Then he watched as one of the Ships his fleet had surrounded disappeared.