The Star Cross (32 page)

Kurt’s face
turned pale at the news. “Keep me informed. We need to finish this battle and
then see what’s left on Earth.” This was his greatest fear: that the Profiteers
would nuke Earth, destroying all life. Kurt wouldn’t know until the battle was
over just how badly Earth had been hit.

-

With renewed fury,
the two Newton task groups closed on the Profiteer and Dacroni ships. Two of
the new battleships promptly blew apart an escort cruiser with their powerful
ion beams. Hypermissiles pummeled the enemy energy screens with a fury not yet
seen in the battle.

A Profiteer
battlecruiser tried to move in to support a Dacroni battleship under heavy
fire. The attacking human battleship and two battlecruisers cruisers promptly
turned on the battlecruiser, which was a weaker opponent.

The battlecruiser’s
energy screen was compromised by two particle beam strikes and an ion beam hit.
A hypermissile slipped through a momentary gap in the screen and slammed into
the bow of the battlecruiser, obliterating one-third of the ship. Its power
failed, and the two human battlecruisers quickly finished it off with their energy
projectors. Then the three vessels turned to the Dacroni battleship, which had
pulled back. At that moment the ten squadrons of Scorpion bombers from the
human carriers swept in, each releasing two Hydra missiles with ten-kiloton
warheads. Nuclear fire washed across energy shields of the entire Profiteer and
Dacroni fleet formation. Several failed, and the attacking Newton warships promptly
blew apart another Dacroni battleship and two more escort cruisers.

-

“We’re hurting
them,” Andrew said jubilantly, as he saw three red threat icons, representing
the Dacroni battleship and two escort cruisers, vanish from the tactical
screen.

“Battlecruiser
Kraken
is reporting heavy damage,” reported Ensign Pierce. “The captain
is requesting permission to pull back to initiate repairs.”

“Permission
granted,” responded Kurt, not wanting to lose the ship and crew.

On one of the
viewscreens a brilliant light suddenly appeared. Kurt looked intently and could
see a human battlecruiser under heavy attack from three Dacroni battleships.
“Is that the
Kraken
?”

“Yes, it is,”
replied Lieutenant Brooks.

Even as Kurt watched,
a hypermissile penetrated the ship’s energy screen, and a massive explosion
tore through the forward third of the ship. Then secondary explosions blew open
compartment after compartment, until the ship seemed to come apart in a violent
explosion of raw energy.

“
Kraken
is down,” reported Lieutenant Brooks.

Kurt felt the
pain of losing another ship and its crew; this battle would be costlier than
the previous ones, but he had no intention of pulling back. The Profiteer fleet
and the Dacroni had to be nearing their breaking point.

-

High Profiteer
Creed picked himself up off the deck. His right arm was bleeding, and he had a darkening
bruise on his forehead.

“We have compartments
open to space, and our sublight drive is damaged,” reported Second Profiteer
Lantz with a panicked look in his eyes. “We need to withdraw!”

“But the cargo
ships,” roared Creed. One of those cargo ships was loaded with a fortune in
gold and gemstones. How could he abandon it?

“We’re taking
too many losses,” Lantz informed him. “If we stay, the humans will destroy all of
our ships. There’s nothing we can do about the cargo ships. Both hyperdrives have
been destroyed.”

Creed let out
a deep and frustrated breath. He had already sent enough gold and gemstones to
Kubitz to make this a highly profitable venture. If he remained, he would be
risking his own life. “Do it,” he ordered. “Contact Clan Leader Jarls and tell
him that we’re withdrawing.”

High Profiteer
Creed gazed in anger at the now not-so-quite-blue-white world. Even as he watched,
it receded, and then the
Ascendant Destruction
jumped into hyperspace. His
occupation of Earth was over.

-

“Remaining
Profiteer and Dacroni ships are jumping,” reported Lieutenant Brooks elatedly.
“We won!” The entire Command Center broke out into cheers and yells of
jubilation.

Kurt nodded
and allowed himself to take a deep breath and then spoke over the ship-to-ship
comm. “Rear Admiral Wilson, recall your bombers and fighters, and then secure
those two cargo ships and the four detainee ships. Take their crews as prisoners.”
Kurt looked at one of the viewscreens. Earth was prominently displayed, and he could
see dozens of small mushroom clouds dotted across the planet. Had they won only
to lose the home planet?

-

President
Mayfield looked grim, as the reports continued to come in. Fourteen nuclear
warheads had struck the North American Union. A number of major metropolitan
areas were in ruins. Fortunately the nukes were quite small, as nukes went, and
the country would survive. Early casualty figures indicated over six million people
had died and many more were injured.

“The
Profiteers and the Dacroni have jumped,” confirmed Colonel Stidham.

“Fleet Admiral
Vickers has control of Earth space,” added Fleet Admiral Tomalson. “We won. It’s
over!”

President
Mayfield appeared to have aged years over the last hour. “Yes, it’s over, but they
still hit us pretty hard. Six million are dead. And those nuked cities will take
time and manpower to clean up. We need to get aid to those areas immediately.
Get help to the injured and food and water to the homeless, so we don’t lose
more of our people.”

“I’m on it,”
Raul said, as he went to talk to several military officers.

“All the
Profiteers on the planet have either been captured or killed,” reported General
Braid, as he listened to the numerous reports coming in.

“There were 112
confirmed detonations of thermonuclear devices,” reported one of the other
officers in the room. “The European Union and the Chinese Conglomerate were
both heavily hit.”

“I’ll contact
their leaders and offer what help we can,” Mayfield said. He didn’t know exactly
what they could do to help the other countries, as the North American Union had
their own dead and injured to deal with.

For several
long moments, he gazed at the large tactical screen that for too many months
had shown a myriad of red threat icons orbiting Earth. It felt strange to only
see the friendly green icons of Newton’s victorious fleet.

Standing up to
his full height, he looked around the situation room and then he spoke. “Let
none of us forgot today. Millions of people have died because, in our ignorance,
we assumed we might be alone in our galaxy. We now know that isn’t true. I
promise all of you this. We will never be caught unprepared again, and someday
we will have our full vengeance against those who brought this carnage and
suffering to our planet.”

President
Mayfield stood outside the presidential bunker in southern Canada. He took in a deep breath of the cool fresh air. It was a little chilly, and he
shivered slightly. The mountains around him were covered with snow, and, in the
distance, he could see a herd of elk grazing in a small meadow where a few sprigs
of grass still poked through the snow.

“Cargo ships
from Newton will be arriving the day after tomorrow,” Fleet Admiral Tomalson
said. He stood next to the president. “It’s nice being out in the sun after
weeks of underground living.”

The president
just smiled and nodded.

“I’ve checked
with the colonies on the Moon and Mars, and they’ll need supplies shortly.”

“It still
amazes me that the Profiteers left them alone.”

“No money to
be gained in messing with them,” Tomalson explained. “They were more interested
in the looting they could do on Earth.”

“The scientists
say it will be years before all the radiation from the nukes goes away,”
Mayfield said glumly “It’s hard to believe that there’ll be so many areas of
our planet devoid of life for decades.”

“Perhaps not,”
responded Tomalson. “I had a long conversation with Fleet Admiral Vickers
earlier, and he suggested that we send a team to Kubitz to see what they have
to clean up radiation.”

“Kubitz?”

“Remember what
Admiral Vickers said. Everything is for sale on Kubitz. If something will clean
up radiation, it will be there.”

“So many people
died. So many cities destroyed,” Mayfield said with a deep sigh. “We’ve lost a
lot of our future and our past, our history. Raul estimates the casualties from
that last attack will exceed forty million worldwide.”

“It’s a hard
lesson we’ve learned,” admitted Tomalson gravely. “We became too complacent.”

“How do we
ensure it doesn’t happen again?”

“We acquire a defense
grid, similar to the one that Admiral Vickers put around Newton, then we must
rebuild our shipyard. We need to complete our fleet and secure our own planet
before we even consider a retaliatory strike against the Profiteers.”

“Why not just
purchase the ships at Kubitz, like Fleet Admiral Vickers did. Wouldn’t that be
faster?”

“Strange thing
about that,” Tomalson said. “While it’s true that the ships Admiral Vickers
purchased are very powerful, they still are only moderately armed for their
size. I think we can come up with a much more powerful design on our own that
will be better suited to our defense. Kurt plans on completely reworking his
new ships. Also a clause in the ships’ purchase contracts prevents their use against
any world of the Gothan Empire. To attack one world with a ship built at Kubitz
is the same as declaring war on the entire star cluster.”

Mayfield remained
silent for quite some time; then he turned toward Fleet Admiral Tomalson. “This
is a new day and age,” he said in a somber voice. “We’re not alone in the
galaxy. It’s full of numerous human and alien races. We’ll have to learn to
cope with that or fade away into history.”

“We won’t fade
away,” promised Tomalson. “Not when we have people like Kurt, who can help to
lead us into this new future.”

Mayfield
nodded. Perhaps Tomalson was right. “Let’s go back inside. We have a lot of
planning to do.”

-

Several days
later Kurt was back on Newton. He had left Rear Admiral Wilson in the Solar System
to see to its defense. In another week, Kurt would be going to Kubitz to see
about purchasing a defense grid for Earth. A special team would be going along
also to see what they could find that might help clean up the radiation from
the nuked sites. With any luck, Earth would shortly be free of radiation, and
it could begin to heal.

“What are your
plans?” asked Andrew, as he and Kurt walked toward the flight bay.

“Down to
report to Governor Spalding and then off to the mountains for a few days.”

“Rest and
relaxation,” responded Andrew in understanding. “I may do something similar
with Emily and Alexis. It would do us all some good to get away for a few days.
I promised Alexis to take her to the beach and teach her how to surf. The only
problem is, I haven’t done any surfing in years.”

“I think some R
& R would be good for all of us,” agreed Kurt. “We’ve been through a lot
these past seven months.”

“I don’t
suppose Keera might be going with you on this trip?”

Kurt allowed
himself to laugh. “Yes, she really wants to go. I promised to show her the
mountains and the snow.”

“She’s good
for you,” Andrew said with a smile. “Don’t mess it up. Also stay away from
Newton Station. I understand Grantz is looking for you.”

“He has
probably come up with a new way to earn more gold.” Kurt grimaced. “I’ll put
him off until I come back from the mountains.”

“We could
always take him back to Kubitz with us,” Andrew suggested. “I’m sure Lieutenant
Tenner could use his services. That’s where he’s supposed to be anyway.”

“Sounds like a
plan to me,” Kurt answered with a nod. “I’ll be sure to tell him that the next
time I see him.”

-

A few days
later Kurt and Keera were in the mountains; they had elected to stay at one of
the large ski resorts, as it offered so many amenities. They had spent most of
the afternoon sitting in the lounge of the resort, taking it easy and talking
about what was ahead for Newton and Earth.

“You have no
idea how fortunate you are to be this far out from the big civilizations,” Keera
commented, as she sipped yet another tea that she had never tried before.

“Why is that?”
asked Kurt, pausing to take a drink of his coffee. “I would think it would have
a lot of benefits.”

“The big
civilizations look down on those of us who aren’t as technologically and socially
advanced,” Keera explained. “It’s one of the reasons the Gothan Empire has
flourished for so long. The midrange civilizations seem to serve to keep
everyone in check. They have the space navies that limit aggression and help to
keep the Gothan Empire—and others like it—under control.”

“That didn’t help
Earth much,” Kurt pointed out.

“Earth and Newton are in a backwater area,” Keera explained. “There haven’t been a lot of exploration
ships out this way. That’s one of the reasons the Profiteers search out worlds
like yours to exploit. Most of the civilized races of the galaxy are gathered farther
in, toward the galactic center, where there are more stars. You also find some
in the larger star clusters. My own home world is inside a star cluster where the
stars are less than half a light-year apart.”

“I wonder how
many other undiscovered worlds are out there.” Kurt asked.

“Probably
quite a few,” Keera answered. “After all, the galaxy is quite a big place, and
most of the outlying areas remain unexplored.”

Kurt nodded.
He wondered if it would be too soon to resume their exploration program to look
for those other worlds and races. It might be wise to search out and find a few
allies against future threats.

Keera looked
over at Kurt with a mysterious smile. “Why don’t we go up to the room? It’s
been a long day.”

“Go ahead,” answered
Kurt. “I’ll make arrangements at the front desk for some ski lessons for
tomorrow. I think you’ll love skiing.”

“Okay,” Keera
said, as she stood up. “Just don’t be too long.”

Kurt watched Keera
walk off, and, after quickly finishing his coffee, he arranged for the lessons.
Then he took the elevator to the fourth floor, where their suite was. It had a
balcony with a fabulous view of the mountains. If he timed it right, they could
sit outside and watch the sunset.

Placing his
key card inside the lock, he heard it click open, and he went inside, locking
the door behind him. He didn’t see Keera anywhere, but he could hear the shower
running. Walking over to the balcony, he opened the doors and stepped outside.
Looking up, he knew that the
Star Cross
was above him. Lomatz had left
the day before, along with his ships. As per their agreement, Kurt had
furnished the arms dealer with an operational  particle beam cannon and the
plans to create more. For the first time in many months, Kurt was at peace with
himself. The war was over, at least for now; Earth was free, and his sister and
her family were safe here on Newton.

He wasn’t sure
if anything would be done about High Profiteer Creed and his attack on Earth.
That was something to be decided in the future. For now Kurt just wanted to
enjoy the peace and quiet of the mountains, plus spend some quality time with Keera.
He heard the shower stop and then, after a moment, footsteps crossing the
floor. Turning around, he saw Keera standing there in a blue gown that left
very little to the imagination. Kurt felt his breathing quicken and his heart beating
faster. Keera looked stunning!

“You said your
favorite color is blue,” she said demurely, as she stepped up to him and put
her arms around his waist.

“Yes,” Kurt answered.
“It always has been and always will be.”

Keera smiled.
“Then kiss me, silly. We have all night to discover what your other favorite
things are.”

Kurt did as
she asked. He was glad the night was still young, and, for once, he felt that
the future looked very bright.

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The Star Cross
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The Star Cross
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