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***

Ian watched the fleet of Thetas arrive and kill the survivors faster than he thought possible. Drey’s fleet had not been as lucky going after the undamaged Invader Battleships inside the galaxy. He could see the pitiful remnants of the massive fleet were too damaged to cause any harm to his attacking ships. “E, were they able to get a feed out?”

“Our probes didn’t detect one. That doesn’t mean they didn’t, but any probe they launched had to be destroyed by the high level of gamma rays. I suspect they didn’t but can’t be certain about it. Some of the ships that jumped out from the galaxy managed to get off a message.”

Ian stared at his panel watching the destruction of the Invader ships that survived the blast and after a moment saw Drey on his display, “It appears they were able to warn the ships inside the galaxy; the last of them jumped away toward that galaxy they’re conquering.”

“Do you know how many escaped?”

“I’m not sure about the exact number but it appears to be around two hundred thousand or so.”

Ian sighed, “This was too easy.”

Drey nodded, “The next invasion is going to be somewhat larger.”

Ian nodded, “That’s like saying an atomic blast is larger than a firecracker.”

“It will be overwhelming in its scope.”

Ian sighed, “I was hoping to delay them ganging up on us; this is going to accelerate that process.”

“It might buy us more time; have you heard anything about how the Green Civilization did with their new toys?”

“Kregen is going to let me know. We need to wrap this up and get back to El Dorado and see what we’ve learned.”

“I can tell you one thing; those ships won’t be easy to take out if they’re fighting in groups. I’ll get our fleets to stand down and I’ll meet you in ten hours.”

“Good enough; I’ll see you then.”

***

The Sovereign looked at the Fleet Controller on his display, “How successful was our new missile?”

“Those ships have the most powerful force field I’ve ever seen or heard of, Sovereign. The Missiles blasted the surface of the force field and shoved their ships violently away from the point of impact. We discovered, through experimentation, that if we hit one side of the Invader’s Ship, followed by an immediate hit on the opposite side, the ship appeared to become disoriented. Our scientists have estimated that it caused massive G forces on the crew inside those ships. Once we saw they were disoriented, we were able to kill them with an overwhelming barrage of the new missiles.”

“But we weren’t able to penetrate their force field with just one missile?”

“We did, eventually; but if those ships had been able to fire on our incoming ships, we might not have been able to get enough ships in close enough to do the job.”

“What can we do with this information?”

“We’re going to assign two ships to each invading ship and hit them quick and jump away. If they’re fighting in a fleet action, we have to avoid any covering fire offered by the ships around those we’re attacking.” The Sovereign shook his head. The Fleet Controller leaned back and said, “One of the small Green Ships arrived and fired one of its missiles at one of the invading ships and exploded it after we had softened it up. Our reading indicated that even their missile wouldn’t have penetrated if the Invader’s field was at full power.”

“That would indicate that they could overwhelm us with numbers.” The Fleet Controller leaned forward in agreement. “We should coordinate our attacks with the humans.”

“I don’t know if they’re open to working with anyone else.”

The Sovereign leaned back and thought a moment. He looked at his Fleet Controller on the display, “I’ll find out.”

***

Chip sat in his ship and replayed the recordings of the attack. He watched numerous Invader ships being blown up by a sequence of three missile hits. They had to be timed exactly to destroy that two mile long battleship. There had to be an easier way to do it. “Salud, this is entirely too dangerous for my taste.”

“Then you shouldn’t have joined the Navy.”

“You’re right; I didn’t think it through. The pay and retirement looked great on paper. What good will retirement do if you don’t live long enough to use it?”

“Refer to my previous remark.”

“What has you so worked up?”

There was a long pause and the computer responded, “You could have helped other ships in the last attack.”

“I was given an assignment and I completed it. Fleet tells us what to do.”

“Have you ever heard the term initiative?”

“Come on Salud, you know that’s not my style.”

“Keeping your grades low at the academy was one thing; but assisting your fellow pilots is another. You should have jumped in and helped those in trouble.”

“It would have been entirely too dangerous to just jump in and start shooting; especially with the difficulty in killing those ships.”

“Chip!… Never mind.”

“Go on and say it.”

“You waste your talents and could be so much more if you choose. It’s depressing. I’m beginning to believe you’re a coward.”

Chip slouched in his command chair and sighed, “Let’s think about a way to take those ships out with less risk. If we can do that, I’ll help others next time.”

“You have something in mind.”

“I do.”

“Well, what is it?”

“How many missiles can be loaded into each tube for launch?”

“One at a time; you know that.”

“Think about this for a moment. The Missiles are fed to the launcher on a belt with ten feet between them. What if the belt was modified so that the first two were only six inches apart and the third two feet behind the first two?”

There was a moment of silence and then, “For all intents and purposes, the first two would probably launch together. The third would follow them in less than a tenth of a second later.”

“Could all three have their launch circuit active to fire when they locked in the tube?”

“They would have to have a target prior to entering the tube.”

“Give all three the same target; you could use the scanner to preload that as well.”

“What’s to prevent them from launching as soon as they entered the launch tube?”

“Have one empty holder in front of the three locked in. All you’d need to do is hit the launch circuit and that holder would rotate out of the tube, bringing the next three missiles in.”

“And they would immediately launch.”

“Exactly, Salud; and the timing of their strikes should be about perfect to take out one of those battle ships.”

“You’d also want an empty holder between each group of three.”

“Now you’re getting it. Instead of having to launch three missiles from three different tubes while being forced to fly an exact course in relation to the target; each tube would launch three at a time. That would remove having to turn parallel to the enemy ship and allow us to attack from any position we chose.”

“Have you discussed this with the Commander?”

“No. You know this would just get tied up in all the red tape and paper work necessary to make a major change to the fleet’s ships. It would be months before we could get a working model.”

“So how are you going to make this happen?”

“I’m going to manually change the belts.”

“Are you crazy? That’s heavy work; you’d have to relocate all hundred and fifty missile holders on the belts; you’ve shown a real lack of motivation to do any work of that magnitude.”

“Salud, Salud. I’m not adverse to hard work; I just don’t like taking actions with high risk. I also don’t like too much authority being shoved on me. I work better alone.” Chip paused, “Besides, if it doesn’t work, we’ll be the only one affected by it. I wouldn’t want anyone else killed by my wild haired ideas.”

Salud actually sighed on the channel, “How do you want to do this?”

“We’ll start with the bow belt. Empty the missiles back into the magazine and I’ll start changing the location of the holders. I’ll need you to help me put them at the right intervals.”

“I’ll do the measuring with my scanners.”

“Thanks. You’ll also have to change the targeting boards in them so each group of three is given the designated coordinates at the same moment.”

“Not really.”

“What?”

“I can send the coordinates to each missile so fast that they’ll have them in less than a microsecond. Changing the boards would require getting Euclid’s engineers involved.”

“We don’t want to do that!”

“I figured you’d feel that way. What are you going to do about eating while you’re making this happen?”

“I’ll eat what’s in the dining stores.” Chip stood and left the bridge to get the tools out of the locker to start work. The current setup wasn’t good enough to insure his survival. Maybe the new one would do it. If it didn’t, he’d just have to stay out of harm’s way. He hoped he had time to make all the modifications before the Invaders came back.

***

Ian took a sip of his beer and leaned back, “The Sovereign wants us to work with his ships.”

Drey’s brows went up, “How do you feel about that?”

“I’m not sure.” Ian took another sip, “Drey, the Invader’s force field is incredible. It takes three missile hits within a tenth of a second of each other to break through. Getting the timing down isn’t easy.”

“Do Cole and Argel have this information?”

Ian nodded, “He’s working on it. However, if he has to change the size of the missiles, all of our ships would have to be modified. That would take a long time to do. It might make the new attack craft too small to carry them.”

“Let us pray they find a solution.” Drey could only nod.

T
he Senior Father looked at the recordings brought back by the survivors of the failed attack and hoped he would live out the day. That stupid Advisor had managed to get himself and his fleet destroyed. He felt a momentary satisfaction at his rival’s death but knew someone was going to pay for the loss. He contacted his Grandfather and fed him all the communications that had taken place between him and the Advisor. He prayed Grandfather would survive. If the council executed him, he would be next. He hoped his Family was not going to be sent to that huge galaxy with a new Senior Father as punishment. However, he suspected that wasn’t going to happen. He sat in his chair and waited for what was to follow.

***

Grandfather absorbed all the information his son had sent him, erased a small portion of it, and listened to the members of the Council express their rage around him. He felt fear for his life but now had enough information to maybe save himself…but it had to be revealed at the proper moment. He looked up as the Senior Grandfather entered. He’d know shortly what his fate was to be.

***

The Council grew silent but the rage of the Grandfathers was palatable in the chamber. The Senior Grandfather looked at the Grandfather that had responsibility of attacking the huge galaxy, “It appears your family is being poorly led.”

Grandfather smiled and said, “I totally agree, Grandfather.”

The Senior was surprised by the answer. The Grandfather from the family that had sent the Advisor along with ten million ships screamed, “HE SHOULD PAY FOR HIS ACTIONS!”

Grandfather looked at the other and said, “What actions are you referring to, Councilman?”

“The stupidity of the attack on that galaxy.”

“Who ordered that attack?”

“Your family ordered that attack; are you stupid?”

Grandfather leaned forward and said, “I have sent recordings of the conversations between the Advisor the Council sent to advise my family and my Senior Father. You will notice that my son advised against carrying out the attack as the Advisor planned it but was told to basically shove it. In ten other disagreements, the issue was taken to the Council and my son was ordered to do as the Advisor suggested and to understand that his views had seniority. After eight more disagreements he sent to the council, my son knew he had to do as the Advisor directed. You have on your panels more than a hundred attempts by my son to persuade the Advisor not to attack in the method he was planning. He was ignored about the size of the force, who would provide the attacking ships, and where they would gather to organize. Please tell me, Grandfather, what stupid things my family did? We followed you son’s instructions to the letter.”

The Senior Grandfather absorbed the information and saw he was in a bad situation. He had planned to reduce the Grandfather’s influence on the Council and had succeeded after the first two failed attacks. He made sure the Advisor had complete control of any future plans and now that was going to lead to a price he didn’t want to pay. There were many on the Council that felt his punishment of his rival wasn’t justified and this information would prevent him from being able to order his execution. His supporters on the Council saw it as well. But someone was going to have to pay for this loss and he couldn’t allow his main rival to gain status. He considered all of his options and made a decision. He turned to the Grandfather of the Advisor, “Your family will cease your current gathering and prepare to invade that troublesome Galaxy. Since you question the ability of the current Family leading the attacks, I expect you to take over and do a better job of it.”

“What about our current gathering?”

“The Family formerly leading the attacks will replace you and complete the gathering.” The Senior turned back to Grandfather, “You will notify your Family to replace the one in the spiral galaxy, immediately. I assume you have completed your gathering.”

“We have.”

The Advisor’s Grandfather stood, “But Senior, I have no information on that galaxy.”

“Did your son not keep you advised on what was happening?”

“He did, but I have none of the previous scouting reports or the locations of the major civilizations there.”

“You will have all the records sent to you and I expect you to be prepared to launch an attack as soon as possible.”

“That will still take some time to organize, Senior.”

“Then I hope you’ve stored enough provisions to last you while that takes place. You may consult with the former Family if you need more information.” The Senior looked around the chamber, stood, and walked out of the room. He was extremely satisfied with himself. He had kept his rival in a diminished position by sending his family to do cleanup in a galaxy and had simultaneously removed him from the center of attention. It was just too bad one of his supporters had to pay for his son’s failure. He was reasonably certain everyone on the Council would agree his decision was wise and impartial. His supporter was being given a chance to grow in prestige, if he could succeed where his rival had failed.