Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship (28 page)

Mike shrugged, “It was the Americans that were forced to turn over their handguns and rifles.”

“How would you possibly know that?”

“I felt the same way, Tilly. I felt naked without my guns.” Mike ran his fingers through his hair, “I hated having to make that decision. However, it was either remove them or have Earth blasted into rubble. The Alliance would never allow millions of weapons to be left in the possession of our citizens. I didn’t like doing it then and I still hate that it had to be done.”

“It appears they’ve come around. Most of our best warriors are from that group and their families.”

“I hope they understand why it had to be done. I think the orders that require any Spartan Warrior who is not on duty to carry their Sliver Handgun and keep their force field active at all times when out in public was something they could identify with.”

“I’ve wondered why you did that.”

“Tilly, all the crazies were not left on Earth. The Ruling Council on Earth deliberately made many of the known crazies board the transports.”

“There’s not been any trouble.”

“Most of the dangerous ones were moved to Delphi on the western continent. Those that were border line insane aren’t crazy enough to start anything with ten million Warriors walking around, armed behind a personal force field.”

“Life on Delphi is dangerous.”

“Tilly, I’m not going to allow you to make me feel guilty about sending them there. I am not going to endanger our civilians by allowing them loose in our population.”

“I’m not trying to do that.”

“Good. That is not a decision that I feel bad about. Take a look at what some of the residents of Delphi have done to each other. I think you’ll understand.”

Tilly sighed, “At least there are enforcers there to protect the bulk of the residents from the most insane ones.”

“Some of them are incredibly ingenious at what they’ve cooked up. It’s a shame they waste that much intelligence on harming others.”

“Is that the only reason you ordered the warriors to be armed?”

“It was a good reason but not the real one.”

“Oh? What other reason is there?”

“What would happen if the Gracken were able to find Sparta?”

“Don’t even suggest that, Mike.”

“What would they encounter if they came to attack Sparta?”

Tilly thought a moment, “They would probably run into a buzz saw.”

Mike smiled, “You’re right. The Warriors would scatter and every Gracken on the surface would be a target. We also have more than a hundred planetary Q beams around all of our communities and they would pay a heavy price to land.”

Tilly nodded and her eyes widened when Mike said, “The Alliance has completed ten orbital fortresses that are pretty incredible. If the Gracken show up, they’ll be jumped in immediately.”

“Why aren’t they here now?”

Mike blew out a breath and said, “Because there is also a possibility of them finding Earth. They’ll be sent where they’re needed.”

Tilly shook her head, “Earth would be defenseless.”

Mike nodded, “The orbital forts would hold them off long enough for us to come and offer assistance.”

“Would we do that?”

“We’ll have to see when the moment arrives. Hopefully, it won’t be an issue.”

“Mike, I’ve never asked what part of the Galaxy Sparta is located in. How far are we from Earth?”

Mike smiled, “Our planet is not in the Milky Way, Tilly. We’re in a galaxy more than half a million light years away.”

“That would make us hard to find.”

“Almost impossible.”

Tilly thought a moment and said, “That’s probably true of the Gracken as well.”

Mike’s brow instantly furrowed, “What did you just say?”

“It just seems to me that the Gracken wouldn’t attack the Alliance if there was a chance of their planets being found. They would have remained in hiding if there was a chance of discovery. That planet busting beam would be something they would not want to face.”

Mike started shaking his head, “The Alliance has been searching in the wrong place.” Mike walked over and lifted Tilly out of her chair and hugged her, “You are amazing.”

“What did I do?”

“See what we’ve been missing.”

• • •

Mike went to his panel and pressed Bowen’s frequency. Bowen appeared on the bridge of his Q ship and there was a young woman with him. Mike’s eyebrows went up as Bowen said, “Yes Sir. What do you need?”

Tilly was looking over Mike’s shoulder and said, “Where are your manners, Bowen? Who is there with you?”

Bowen’s face turned red as he said, “Excuse me, Tilly; this is Faye Allison. I’ve asked her to be my co-pilot and she’s accepted.”

Tilly smiled, “It’s good to meet you, Faye. I know you’re going to enjoy flying a Q ship.”

Faye smiled, “Bowen was familiarizing me with the systems. This ship is incredible.”

“Yes it is.”

Bowen interrupted, “Do you need me for something, Sir?”

“I do. Will you contact the Celean Representative and ask him to contact me on my frequency.”

Bowen waited a moment hoping Mike would tell him why he wanted the contact but Mike didn’t say anything else. Mike’s eyes narrowed and Bowen said, “Yes Sir; I’ll contact him immediately.”

The panel went dark and Tilly said, “Faye is quite attractive.” Mike nodded and waited. Tilly contacted Jeanette and told her about Bowen’s new partner. Jeanette smiled and planned to get Adams to call and embarrass his old Seal Partner.

Mike listened to Tilly plotting with Jeanette for three minutes, when the Celean appeared on Mike’s display, “Your representative to the Assembly tells me you wish to speak with me.”

“I do; I was hoping you could help me with an issue.”

“What issue is that, Commandant?”

“I’ve been thinking about where the Gracken might be located. Has the Assembly fleet been able to find their planets?”

“No, they have not. They must be cleverly hidden to have avoided our searches.”

“Where have you looked?”

“Most of the inner core of our galaxy.”

Mike stared at the Celean and after a moment said, “How do you think the Gracken found the Assembly’s planets?”

The Celean shrugged, “I really don’t know. I suspect one of their ships stumbled on one of them.”

Mike leaned back in his chair, “Jesse’s Q ship computer, Peter, told him when he first stole the ship that the Alliance found violent worlds by tracking the particles that blow out of a nuclear explosion at multiples of the speed of light.”

The Celean nodded, “That’s exactly how we find them.”

“It’s my understanding that the Gracken are slightly more advanced technologically than the Alliance.”

“That is true.”

“If you could track those particles…”

The Celean’s eyes opened wider, “We haven’t thought of that. You’re suggesting the Gracken saw the particles and tracked them back to the violent planets we destroyed.”

Mike stared at the Celean and said, “How long ago was the first planet destroyed?”

“About seven thousand years ago.”

Mike nodded, “What took them so long to get here?”

The Celean tilted his head back, “I don’t know what you mean?”

“Well, if you could track those particles seven thousand years ago, and the Gracken are more advanced than your civilization; it’s pretty certain that they also saw those particles seven thousand years ago. What took them so long to get here?”

The Celean leaned back in his chair, started rocking, and thought about the question. As he thought about it, Mike started making statements, “Why didn’t they invade when the first signal was detected? If they’re advanced now, they were probably more advanced than the Alliance then. Why did they show up a little over a year ago? Why did they delay?”

The Celean stopped rocking when Mike said, “The Gracken have not shown that they possess patience.”

“They didn’t delay?” The Celean stared at Mike and shook his head, “When did you figure this out?”

“About ten minutes ago when my wife made an observation about Sparta being in a different galaxy. She said the Gracken probably were as well.”

“She’s a smart woman.”

“Indeed she is. What I need your help with is to look at the star maps the Alliance has produced.”

“What do you need?”

“I suspect you already know. I want you to draw a line from the first nuclear explosion seven thousand years ago to where those particles would be a year ago.”

“That is an incredible distance.”

“I know. Once you have the line drawn, I want you to use that as a radius of a sphere and tell me how many galaxies are touching that sphere.”

The Celean began entering data into his panel and Mike was stunned by how fast he typed on his panel. His six fingers moved faster than Mike could follow. They were a blur. Tilly watched and could only shake her head. After thirty minutes the Celean stopped entering data and pushed his chair back so he could look at the wall display in his room. Mike couldn’t see the display and wondered what was on it. “There were forty three galaxies touching that sphere between one and two years ago.”

“Will you mark those galaxies on a star map and send it to me?”

The Celean looked a Mike for a moment and then said, “Is this frequency a good one to send it?”

Mike looked over his shoulder, “Hot Shot?”

“I can receive it and process it on this frequency.”

Mike looked back at the Celean, “Send it!”

The Celean pressed a button and his eyes narrowed, “What are you going to do with this map?”

“I’m not sure at the moment but I want you to keep this just between us.”

“The Alliance would really want this information.”

“And they’ll have it at the right moment; now isn’t the time.”

“Bowen probably told you that I don’t communicate with the Assembly.”

“He did, but you wouldn’t have to communicate to just send them this map.”

The Celean smiled, “I’ll leave it up to you to deliver this at the appropriate time.”

Mike shook his head, “I must say that I wonder why you even go to the Assembly if you’re not going to communicate.”

The Celean smiled, “Most would have to pay big bucks for that degree of comedy anywhere else. It’s great for laughs.”

Mike smiled, “I imagine it is. Thanks for your help.” The Celean nodded and the display went dark.

“What are you going to do with this information, Mike?”

“I’m not sure, Tilly. There’s something that’s bothering me about the Gracken but I can’t wrap my mind around it. It…just…eludes me.”

Tilly shrugged, “Don’t think about it. It’ll come to you.”

“Is that what you do, Tilly?”

“Absolutely, give it a try.”

Mike nodded and looked at the countdown on his panel. Thinking about other things was not going to be a problem. The invasion was thirty nine hours away. They were going back to Fippen. This time, it was going to be the Gracken on the wrong end of the barrel. He began running through the pre-invasion reports and queried the database for information on the A 10s. He read a paragraph and sat straight up in his chair. He pressed a button and Colonel Long appeared on his panel, “What is this about changing out ten Warthog’s guns out with sliver rounds?”

“Sir, the Gracken have placed a Beamship on the tallest building in every city. It will be that ship that will kill the civilians if things go bad. It will also kill every Flier that drops in on the city if it’s not taken out. We’re going to drop a Warthog in on them from orbit. It will fire the guided sliver rounds at the ship.”

“Why slivers?”

“If the Warthog is taken out, the rounds will continue to the target that the Hog has targeted with its spotting laser.”

“I notice that Josh Adams is the pilot assigned to take out the first one.”

Long blew out a breath, “Sir, he is ranked number one in his flight tests. Do you want me to choose someone else?” Mike stared at Long and after a moment Long said, “The fliers will be dropped and coming into the city immediately following the attack on that Beamship. Our drop warriors deserve having the best we have taking the shot.”

Mike nodded, “You’re right. I hope you’re sending in back up in case he doesn’t make it.”

“Pricilla will be his second.” Mike’s eyebrows went up and Colonel Long said, “She is number two.”

Mike slowly nodded and sighed, “I suspect she would fight anyone that tried to take her place.” Long nodded. Mike knew Jeanette and Adams were under a huge load of stress. He could feel their pain but he couldn’t treat their son differently. He was sure they knew it. He ended the call and shook his head.

• • •

Josh sat in the transport’s cafeteria waiting on Pricilla. She should have been back by now. He took a bite of his salad and heard, “It’s been a long time.”

Josh looked behind him and saw Brent wearing a Spartan Flier’s uniform. He also saw he wore Lt. Bars on the shoulder, “BRENT!”

Brent grabbed Josh and lifted him off the floor in a bear hug. He put him back down and smiled, “It really is good to see you. I’ve never thanked you for saving my life.”

“This makes it worth it, Brent. How were you able to join the infantry?”

“It took three months of constantly harassing Sgt. Slade to get him to allow me to go to FT. Rome to clean the latrines. After another six weeks, Colonel Aman came and talked with me about why I was enduring the work. I told him about you saving my life and telling me to make it worth it. I told him that if cleaning latrines was the only way to pay it back, I would clean them to the best of my ability.”

Brent smiled and sat down beside Josh, “A week later he came and enlisted me into his regiment.”

Josh smiled, “That is a great regiment, Brent.”

“And it has a great commander, Josh.”

Pricilla walked up smiling, “Well look at this. Who would have thunk it?”

Brent stood and offered his hand to Pricilla. She ignored it and gave him a hug, “Congratulations. I always thought you had it in you.”

Brent smiled and stepped back, “Maybe I can catch you after the drop. I have to go join my platoon and get racked in.” He looked at Josh, “Thanks again; I owe you.”

Josh shook his head, “No you don’t. You’ve paid that debt by being here with us.” Brent smiled and jogged away. Josh looked at Prissy, “I was worried.”