Chapter Six
What a mess Randelon had made. Dimly I recognized pieces here and there drifting idly about of what had been my old home.
Destruction was plentiful to behold for sure, but what a construction was to be seen as well!
Before me rose an eclectic compilation of fused together debris that had been artfully linked together to form a massive jump gate that hung silently still in space. It was a behemoth to the testament of what man could accomplish under sheer force of will.
From the looks of it Randelon had cannibalized another ship out of the fleet in order to complete the linkage of the metallic circuits for the huge gate. I glanced to Lathartha only to witness profound shock on her face as she viewed the construction before her.
How Randelon had managed to get so much done was even beyond my expectation of what I knew the man was capable of.
“Captain I’m sure glad you’re back!” Came my first officer’s worried voice over the COM channel.
“Let me guess, someone’s picked up on all the unusual activity taking place around here and is coming to investigate.”
“Yes Sir. We make it to be five reptilian cruisers on course with this location set to arrive within two days’ time.”
“How much longer till the gate is completed?” I asked in return as the ever present tensions of leadership swept back through me like a remembered cloak of oppression.
“Randelon has projected at least four more days Sir!”
I grimaced. While I had a newfound way of dealing with the cruisers I hadn’t exactly wanted to let the cat out of the bag so early as to our new found offensive abilities for fear of word leaking out and the surprise that I had wanted to deal to the enemy armada gathering off my world became an extinct possibility.
Even with an extremely strengthened shield I wasn’t so sure of how much damage the five large asteroid ball like ships along with a host of smaller rock vessels could take when submitted to direct bombardment from the onset of a conflict.
“What’s the delay in getting the gate completed faster?” Lathartha asked with visible tension.
The COM line remained silent in apparent confusion at an unknown voice.
“Well answer my wife’s question!” I said testily.
“Sir? Uhhh congratulations, as to the question it’s simply the amount of work assembly needed for shifting in the remaining links. All the complex technological linkage is in place.”
Lathartha turned to me, “I can get my people to work on it and see if we can speed things up a bit.”
I nodded decisively and watched in appreciation as she ran off calling out orders in well-timed fashion. She was quite the woman.
“I can’t quite make up my mind whether it’s her well-developed sense of command or her well-proportioned rear that has you to the point of drooling dear brother.”
Instantly annoyed I glanced at my sister standing nearby and said, “Isn’t there someone else you could go annoy?”
She smiled candidly and moved off.
I don’t know what made me do it, but calling out I said, “Just for your information it happens to be both.”
She laughed, but continued on her way. I liked the sound of her laughter, but glancing around worriedly I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the last such sound of merriment I’d hear before reptilian torpedoes tore through the very hull of the ship I stood in.
There was an awfully lot to get done, but…… well, I’d just have to take some stock in my faith that it would all get done.
*****
I rubbed at my eyes, which felt gritty in their sockets. Man I was getting old!
19 hours without sleep and I was dead. 10 years ago I’d of done this with no sweat.
I needed to retire, that was what. Some things had to happen first though. Namely surviving the next few hours.
Something was nudged into my hands and I glanced down to see my mother offering me a cup of something hot. She was looking rather old right now. In a way we all were.
The five radar contacts on the screen had a way of doing that to a person. Heck I would’ve engaged the five cruisers without the asteroids for backup, but the 12 other contacts, but an hour or two behind the first five had a way of tipping things slightly out of our favor.
Once again I stared at the COM line waiting for it to speak. No one could say that we hadn’t fought as hard as one could to do the impossible in the last 19 hours. The work crews were finishing up out there right now.
At the end it was all coming down to ride on Lathartha’s firm shoulders. Randelon bless his heart had worked himself into a comatose stupor, but Lathartha’s grasp of new ideas had been such that she’d been able to observe and replicate Randelon’s monumental breakthrough in just the 15 hours before Randelon had passed out from exhaustion.
It wasn’t all just her though, it seemed that everyone was putting forth an effort beyond the range of their former abilities whatever they may have been. This was the last push for survival by two peoples who had been forged in the fires of relentless pressure.
Continuing to stare at the COM I willed it to speak as if it had a voice and reasoning consciousness of its own. All this effort on the part of so many desperate people had to be rewarded!
“Drink, honey.” My mother said as the contacts on the radar screen drifted a little closer.
I glanced down at the forgotten cup in my hands. I took a drink and immediately coughed flames. Clearing my throat I husked out, “What kind of jungle juice did you put in this mother?”
“Take another sip dear. I can’t say the concoction is a healthy one, but it will stand you back up on your feet.”
I’ll say, I silently commented to myself. “I’m not going to go blind from this am I?”
She rolled her eyes and urged me to drink again. I did so and immediately felt moisture pool in the corners of my dry eyes, which was a relief. The drink was at least good for something.
I pushed the cup back into her hands, “Thanks mom.”
She smiled tiredly and said, “I really hate that I haven’t got to meet your leading lady son.”
“God willing you will soon. I think you will really like her.”
“I know I will. Any woman who can put the smile on your face the way the memory of this woman just did is a best friend of mine for sure.”
I nodded.
Mother glanced at the silent COM, “I’ve heard she’s doing the work of 10 men out there.”
“That’s putting it lightly.” I said, as once again the urge to be out there with her struck me hard. It wasn’t to be though, because of leadership and all that. Right now I was fed up with leadership! Let someone else do it, only looking around confirmed that no one was angling for the job right now.
The COM line crackled and Lathartha’s weary voice came over it weakly, but yet determined, “The last pieces are set. We have cohesion. I repeat we have cohesion. My tests show an uninterrupted power line across the full spectrum of the gate. We are ready to initiate cell power up and cohesion firing on your command Captain.”
“Great! Now get back in here. Escorts get the last of our people inside on the double. To all ships move forward to predesignated alpha channels. Asteroids line up on center.”
Ships started moving even as the command asteroid I was currently running operations in rolled to its position point behind the massing of the fleet that filled the opening of the jump gate that yawned impressively wide before us.
All the enemy signatures on the radar seemed to impossibly increase in speed. My first officer’s voice rang out with more savagery than I’d ever heard him exhibit before, “Not today cold teeth! The only thing you’re going to chew on is our exhaust!”
Being the reserved type by nature he immediately looked embarrassed by what he’d said out loud. I eased his discomfort by saying, “True words. I’m considering a promotion for you. You can have my job in about a week.” Everyone laughed, but in truth I wasn’t really joking.
The COM crackled, “All teams onboard, Sir. There’s no one left out there.”
I turned to Briandy and watched her eyes grow big as I gestured to the newly installed array over in the corner that had only been activated for the first time in existence, but a week or so ago, “Would you care to do the honors?”
“Would I ever!” She said as she rushed over to the array. I didn’t miss the way Edgar gravitated along with her, but it was with surprise that I watched my sister share the power-up initiation process of the gate with Edgar.
I glanced to mother and we both did an eyebrow raise. At long last little sister was learning to share.
My attention was drawn to the corridors of outside space as raw power on an epic scale swirled through the interlinked pieces of worn ship hide that had once been my home. With pride I watched the dented and grayed metal take on a sheen of molten power.
Space seemed to quiver and then like a reptilian tanker going up in flames the event horizon of the jump gate blasted past us. The asteroid barely wobbled, but I saw some of the smaller ships ahead of us get tossed about from the blast.
Well there was no time like the present in order to make history. Holding the fleet COM line up to my mouth I said, “Heavenly Father I pray that you would see us all safe to the other side and help us reclaim our land. All fleet vessels enter the gate.”
Without hesitation the forward remaining ships of my fleet surged forward only to be consumed from sight almost instantaneously by the intervening space and time that we had bridged across. The flotilla of smaller asteroids zizzed forward to disappear and one by one the big boys rolled through until only the last asteroid which we were on was left.
She was the biggest of the five and I had my doubts, but I kept quiet about them. We eased forward under the careful guidance of the asteroid’s pilot.
Turns out there was plenty of room and in awe I watched the color waves stream by the outer hull of rock as we entered high-speed travel. We’d done it!
*****
Like angry wasps the five cruisers slid out of their high-speed vector stream. They seemed to hum their displeasure at the sight of empty space before them.
What was worse for them though was the sight of the giant super gate. They knew how to build jump gate’s and had done so for some time, but never such a one as this. Not one of this magnitude that could convey an entire fleet across the length of the known galaxy.
The humans had taken a huge step forward. A step that their reptilian kind had never wished to see them achieve. A simple mission of hunting down a few scattered refugees from prior conquests had turned into something much more.
Their deep space communication arrays flared to life as all five reptilian cruisers combined their energy supplies together in order to send out a massively powerful signal that would alert all members of their kind across the universe. The message flashed powerfully and deeply through the dimensional reaches of space.
The message was simple in its explanation of what the humans had managed to accomplish and it was direct in the order that it gave. It was time for the world of Soluranami to be utterly destroyed with every last human tracked down and killed less they once again become a worthy adversary.
12 more reptilian cruisers eased out of their vector streams and they of one hive mind combined to form a kill squad and ease forward toward the still flashing event horizon of the magnificent gate poised in space. They would be the first to taste the resistant blood of the cursed Melungeon’s.
The lead ship of the group however had no sooner touched the event horizon than the whole series of interlocked circuits of the gate turned molten red and exploded outward in all directions epically.
This safety feature hadn’t been in the original design, but as a nature of habit Lathartha’s people were used to cloaking or if need be destroying the evidence of their higher technological breakthroughs. All 17 cruisers were eviscerated by the gamma force rays let off by the explosion of the gate.
When the flash of the explosion faded away all that was left were the shattered remnants of what appeared to be a metallic asteroid field lost to any significance within the deep reaches of the Far Quarter. The insatiable appetites and hatreds of a few had been denied, but the message they had sent had gone out far and wide.
*****
I walked as briskly as my tired legs could take me down the corridor towards the hanger bay. I was tired and spent of all emotion, but the euphoria of the success of the moment had adrenaline moving my blood along.
Engineers and technicians alike lay asleep around the hangar bay as if dead having succumbed to the need for rest on the spot. These people had moved mountains and I only wished that I could reward them in some way, but continued survival was the only reward to be offered at the moment and for now that was enough.
I found Lathartha still in her spacesuit passed out with the rest. I hurriedly began snapping her out of it.
She stirred fitfully and tried to open her eye, but I whispered as I bore her aloft into my arms, “Easy. It’s only me.”
At the sound of my voice she slumped peacefully asleep into my arms. I carried her back up the hall and through the interconnecting halls until gratefully I found a personnel transporter.
People still awake smiled wanly at our passing before laying their heads back down and closing their eyes. The lines between her people and my people had become hopelessly blurred as we were now all embroiled on one joint quest together. They were one people and they were still free to live another day.
Finally I reached her quarters that were identical to my old and now dismantled ones and shoved my way through the door. It crashed back against the wall and I stumbled across the floor half-hazardly only to unceremoniously dump Lathartha roughly onto her bed.
I could tell that her rough landing had jarred her partially awake and quickly I apologized as I crawled up off the floor and onto the narrow bed beside her, “Sorry about that.”
Her words were so mumbled I almost didn’t make them out, “Take me I’m yours.”
Chuckling I pressed my face into her decidedly grease and oil stained hair and said, “You’re ravishment will have to wait. I need…….” All conscious thought disappeared other than the peace I felt at having her near to me once again.
*****
Siringo’s mother slipped into the room through the still wide open door and approached the bed. Tears in her eyes she stared down at the sleeping couple whose hands had interlocked in their sleep.
Stepping closer she unfolded a blanket at the foot of the bed and covered the pair. Looking down at them she whispered, “Thank you for answering my prayer to see my son settled and happy.”
With one last loving look at the pair she eased out of the room closing the door behind her.
*****
The streams of high-speed color were all around us and then they were rapidly gone and in the instance that occurred I said, “Move the fleet down towards the planet. I think we could all do with the feel of ground beneath our feet and a breath of real air.”
I wished Lathartha could have been here to share in this momentous occasion, but both of us had agreed that it was for the best if the asteroids dropped out of the jump vector field before we reached the planet’s atmosphere. Reason being that Soluranami was probably already being highly monitored by enemy spy craft and seeing the effective ability of the asteroids too soon may take all the surprise in the upcoming battle that they could offer us away.
The asteroids were headed here even now, but they were behaving as if part of an offshoot comet. They should be within striking distance within two days, if nothing went wrong.
Grimly I glanced at the radar output telemetry. Thankfully someone had disabled the alarm feature in order to not have it going off incessantly. The enemy were already here in great number.
They hovered in a gathering mass of a cloud at the edges of the solar system. Their numbers had grown exponentially and already there were far more than I would’ve thought possible. Even with the help of the asteroids victory didn’t seem possible when faced off against such odds.
I turned from the grim reality lurking in the dark of space to the dream coming true before my eyes. We were about to land on a living breathing world that just happened to be our homeworld of old. Somehow that just made it even more special.
The landing went a bit roughly as the act of landing a ship had never really been one practiced before by any of the officers on watch. Hatchway’s opened and immediately what threatened to overwhelm everyone was simply the smell of fresh unfiltered air that bore with it the essence of a million smells unfamiliar to us and yet divine in the experiencing of them.
Stumbling past people who lay about everywhere clutching at the green grass and breathing in deeply I made my way out further into the vast prairie of greenery before me that was spotted here and there by a young up-sprouting tree. I was at a lack for words to express the emotions of what I was experiencing right now.
I fell to my knees in the green grass humbled beyond all bearing, “Thank you God!”
Feeling vibration in the ground beneath me I looked up and saw perhaps one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen. A teeming herd of four-legged animals with unrivaled grace was streaming over a distant knoll in a display of strength in motion.
I felt tears running down my face and immediately I was reminded that this was no way for a leader to be acting. Hurriedly I wiped at my face and got up.
The grass stains on my knees were like a badge of honor. It was hard to not just settle back down to my knees and dig my hands into real dirt.
No more bland tasteless hydroponically grown vegetables and simulated protein bars! That alone made the future immeasurably brighter.
I turned back to the landed ship to see my people as a whole spread out in complete revelmeant in the awakening of all their senses in a way that none of us had ever experienced before.
Soberly I took in the big dented pieces of space junk that had borne us here to our home of old. It was a wonder that they could even support life let alone get off the ground. Which bore the question of, ‘how was I going to fight off an alien invasion with them?’
How could I possibly win given what I had to work with?
My eyes shifted to a gorgeous looking cruiser that had set down in the grass a respectable distance away from the fleet. I had not heard it before as I had been so lost in my enjoyment of this place.
Vaguely I recognized Edgar as being one of three men that were talking out in the grass not too far from where I stood now. Edgar pointed and the group headed my way. No doubt they were more of my people who’d returned home from elsewhere.
I took in the two men with Edgar for what they were. They were fighters through and through. That was good, but the real question was, ‘did they have any more ships such as the sleek beauty in the grass behind them?’
They came to a stop and the oldest of the three said, “Welcome back to your home Captain Siringo. I can scarcely believe either the story of your survival or how you’ve managed to return so quickly. Surely God is favoring our cause. My name is Taren and this is my brother Logan.”
I nodded, “Thank you for your welcome, but tell me do you have any idea as to the force gathered against us up there just waiting to descend like a lead rain upon this world of warm skies and open prairies?”
Taran nodded, “I do, but if the Lord of hosts is with us in this conflict I see no reason to fear even if the enemy were to block out the stars by the sheer volume of their number.”
Smiling I reached out my hand to Taran and he took it and shook it firmly as I said, “It’s good to be in the presence of brothers once more. Tell me what do you have to fight with?”
“Other than faith and determination not much. We have seven cruisers other than the one behind us. We have one larger cargo ship and a fleet of about 20 beast men tech cruisers we seized a few years back. I’ve set up some star batteries in a grid layout here on the surface, but that’s basically the sum total of our defensive capabilities.”
Edgar cleared his throat and with a glance at him Taran added, “There is one other thing. Do you know anything about a ship classification entitled Deep Truth?”
“No, I don’t.” I said.
“I do Sir!”
I glanced to the side as my first officer hurried to explain his outburst, “I found mention of it in the records years ago. It was an ultrahigh powered ship of war called a Battle Slonager. It was the first prototype of a new class of ship. It was designed with only one purpose in mind. The travel of deep space and the ability to destroy reptilian worlds. It was never brought into service, because the huge mass of the ship required newer technology then was possessed at the time in order to accommodate its great bulk by which to power it to move through space. All it could manage at its first stage of completion was what power its engines could generate. It was left behind because of its inability to jump into a vector stream.”
“I don’t need it to be vector stream capable.” I exclaimed in growing excitement.
“No sir, you certainly don’t!” My first officer responded back just as excited.
Patting him on the back I turned back to Taran, “So where is it?”
“That’s the problem. We know where the outside entrance is, but we can’t gain access to it. It seems that the way was sealed to all but only a fleet commanders direct input. As the last surviving fleet commander you wouldn’t happen to have some kind of activation key device would you?”
“Why yes I would.” I said, as I pulled a necklace out of my open shirt that had a chip code key attached to it.
Looking to Taran I asked, “Do you have adequate personnel to fly the ships you do have, along with damage control squads?”
He made a face, “No not really. About half what I need.”
“That isn’t a problem as most my people have had some experience at just about everything it takes to operate a ship.”
Slapping my first officer hard on the back I said, “See that whatever personnel is needed is transferred to Taran’s control.”
Taran and my first officer, of whom I was increasingly proud of, headed off together. Taran’s brother Logan gestured to the cruiser behind him and said, “This way to the big gun.”
Smiling, I followed. Things were looking up. An Asteroid Fleet, a Battle Slonager, and a respectable number of smaller class ships. We were still outnumbered by likely 500 to 1, but well I was excited anyway.