Chapter Eight
I glanced around at the bridge full of individuals that I’d seen about me daily all my life. All of them looked to still be grappling with the unreality of their circumstances.
Zevaris, one of my chief technicians, came close and showed me a digital tablet that he was manipulating output levels on. “Look at this Captain! It’s just like the old rust bucket, but all those submenus and tuning prerogatives never worked before. I remember my father talking about them, but they never functioned for me. This is literally amazing in terms of what you can do with all this extra stuff in terms of hidden capabilities and additional power distributions. I can’t figure out how we stayed afloat in space without some of these functions! It’s simply incredible!”
“Enjoy it Zevaris you’ve earned the joy of working with something new for once.”
He wondered off still mumbling to himself in apparent continual stupefaction. I shook my head as the reality that without the intervention of one man in particular we wouldn’t have stayed afloat in space just as Zevaris had hinted at.
That man, Randelon, came popping his way into view. Fully recovered from the jump gate experience and yet painfully thin he hustled over to me.
The opinion of him as an eccentric even laughable individual had changed in the eyes of all my people. They now looked at him with only respect and I didn’t doubt that not one of them wouldn’t have come to his defense should he have need of it.
They all knew full well that without Randelon they’d all be dead right now. While we still might all be dead soon anyway the possibilities were definitely looking up in terms of our continued survival.
Randelon was before me vibrating with the urge to speak, but appeared bound from uttering a single stuttered phrase aloud.
“Got all the diagnostics run?”
He nodded.
“Good to go?”
He nodded.
“Have you managed to strengthen the shield array with your new free energy vacuum energizer?”
He nodded.
“Well what is it that you want to say Randelon?” I asked teasingly.
“Itt’sss gre-e-at! Evverrrthinggg thhhhe besssst!”
“I know and well it should be as a lot of good people sacrificed to make it so. Now it’s time to make their life’s work come to life in the aid of our world as they one day intended for it to. Power it all up. In fact do it from my chair.”
Without a break I rose to my feet and pressed Randelon into the cushions of the captain’s bridge console seat. In shock he sat there in stupefaction not only at my action of honoring him, but also at the chant that broke out among all those in the bridge as they saluted him as one.
Tears running down his sunken cheeks I watched him engage the entire ship from his seated position. This day had been a long time in coming, in more than just one way.
Like a monolithic rise of a nebula plume, I watched from screens all about as the ship came to full life. With a cranking groan of protest still audible through the thick hide of the ship I watched the overhead mountain peel away to reveal bright blue sky overhead.
The overhead canopy wings didn’t make it all the way open, but with shields at more than four times the power of the maximum energy level they had been designed for, the Deep Truth moved upward and the overlying rock layers that had jammed the portal opening crumbled away into nothingness. The Deep Truth had risen to see the light of day for the first time since its creation.
The light of the sun glinted off its metallic hull dully. As a ship it hadn’t been built with pretty in mind unlike the sleek little cruiser we had arrived here in. No, this was an implement of abject warmongering.
The Deep Truth was built for only one purpose. The extermination of a race of abject monsters and it was set in every facet of its form to the completion of that objective.
I stood over one of my other officers in charge of radar analytics and with deep fascination I watched the swarms of the enemy’s numbers that had already begun to descend toward the planet come to a complete halt as no doubt their screens lit up with the largest radar contact that they’d ever encountered. Their hesitation in this moment was proof enough of the innate fear they had of humanity given our divinely appointed creation and the blessing of eternity that was to all humans who would believe in the Son of God and the story of what He’d done so well portrayed out in the stars of creation all around us.
“Siringo?” Randelon called out questioningly.
I headed back to the lead chair of the bridge and Randelon vaulted out of it and without a stutter said, “I’d feel better with you managing the next part of this play.”
Patting him on the shoulder I said, “And I know I’d feel better with you right on point to manage the power supply and the other hundred things you do without blinking.”
Randelon smiled and nodded before quickly sobering and saying, “Thank you for this. I…… It’s more than I ever dreamed of as being possible. Thank you for not giving up out there and for never losing your faith in me.”
Looking him in the eye I said, “You know I don’t think you’re ever going to stutter again.”
“I don’t think so either.”
I moved on past him and sat down as he hurried off to do his part elsewhere.
Once seated I experienced the joy of the power to be had at my fingertips. As much as I wanted to rain down vindication upon the hated swarm gathered above I contented myself with triggering onto two enemy signatures only.
They would never expect this as we were still yet relatively close to the surface of the planet and the main body of their ships were still thousands of miles away. No one questioned what I was about.
“Give me a 40% power charge on forward beam icons one and four”
“Charged and ready Sir.” Came back almost instantly.
“Fire!”
Twin beams of raw power shot out through the atmosphere and into space as we continued to gain altitude. All enemy shipping in the path of the twin beams of energy was vaporized on contact, but still the power charge at but 40% was enough to carry on through until they each singularly crashed into the hulls of the two largest reptilian hive consort carriers.
The resulting explosions of these two ships took out a host of smaller less well shielded class ship’s and yet we were still out of range of any return fire. Like scared bunnies the swarms of the enemy peeled backward from our ascent in distress of the situation at hand.
As a fleet the enemy shifted backward altogether, but I fired no more shots at them. Their retreat came to a halt.
I full well knew the quandary that they were in. The Deep Truth defied all their probability algorithms with the scope of its abilities to take out their finest ships at such long distance.
To engage us was to risk annihilation of all their best ships. However to retreat from our world and leave our kind to repopulate and grow strong enough again to build such ships as this was to tempt the annihilation of their species for they could not doubt now as to what purpose this ship had been created.
The war between us was one without any quarter. They could not retreat and the threat of the cost of staying in the theater of war had them no doubt jibber jabbering away at each other in their foul language.
Either way what I was wanting to be accomplished was happening. I was buying time. I needed one more day until I could unleash everything at my disposal upon my hated foe. The bad side of it however was that they would also have a day to dream up and implement contingency plans in order to cope with our newfound abilities.
In the end I wanted them to attack me as defending from a position of strength is always more preferable than venturing outside of favorable conditions. Positioned as we were now in the lower atmosphere we were well able to receive covering fire from the landside star batteries and in return provide support for them.
That said however it would be a grand thing to go rampaging through their lines with all guns blazing. I tamped down that wild desire and eased back in my seat.
In amusement I watched the small fleet, heavy with exotic looking cruisers, head my way. Taran’s face flipped onto a screen, “Quite impressive.”
“Yes, quite the toy to pull out of the war chest isn’t it. Have your squadron take up position within our shield cloud. Now, am I being broadcast fleetwide under a secure channel?”
When I received a confirmation from a quick head shake from my communications officer I began the layout of perhaps my most serious order to date, “Now hear this all outlying fleet vessels. Your mission is not to engage with the enemy. I repeat your mission is not to engage the enemy. Your sole endeavor should consist of two parts. Number one, stay out of the way of our weapon platforms. Mark their locations well before we begin any enemy engagement. Number two, your mission is to intercept enemy fire at this flagship by any means at your disposal. This ship is fully capable of taking the enemy on by itself, but if we get injured or we lose vital controls the fight will soon be over and each of you smaller class vessels will be picked off in short order. I repeat that your sole objective is to stay within our shield radius and ensure the survival of the Deep Truth. I expect suicide runs and the mass bombardment of space mines as well as the use of lasers. Help this ship’s defensive batteries to take out as much incoming hostile ordinance as possible. This upcoming battle will not be a battle about anyone’s personal glory or how many enemy kills one can individually rack up. This is a battle for survival! And survive with God’s grace we will, but only if we stick together as a team. No personal heroics unless it is for the furtherance of the survival of this flagship to continue pressing fire upon the enemy unabated. I want five dedicated ships of your number focused directly under the forward bridge of the Deep Truth. These five are now Alpha Squadron One. The rest of you are Alpha Squadron Two. I may need alpha squadron one for special operations, but until called for provide cover fire. Should a vessel of Alpha One perish then a replacement needs to be drawn from Alpha Two. Are my orders clear?”
Acknowledgments rang in from all over.
“All right give me your names and final locations around the hull of the Deep Truth when you have them picked out, until then radio silence as this will be a waiting game.
*****
Hours passed by, in which I sat staring out into space as my mind played through scenario after scenario of what could occur in the hours to come. I looked up in startlement at the sight of my mother standing beside my chair holding a cup of something I presumed was for my use.
“What are you doing on board? You should be in one of the underground shelters on the surface!”
“Now son don’t get all cranky like your father used to. I’ve come too far to sit this one out. You were unconscious with injuries at the time, but I was standing in the bridge of our old flagship and I got to watch firsthand as my husband outgunned and outnumbered got blown into a million particles, while he bought the time needed for the majority of the fleet to escape. Since then I’ve lost two younger sons and your older sister to those cowering fish scaled demons out there, but no more! Soon things are going to go the other way for the first time in two centuries and I’m not going to miss one second of it!”
“Simmer down mom. Save it for the fight.” I said with amusement that seemed to be shared by everyone else in the bridge at the undying spunk that remained within my mother.
“Here sit on my knee you beautiful woman you.” I said, as I pulled her down to sit on my leg.
She smacked me good-naturedly on the cheek, but she stayed where she was.
My arm around her waist squeezed and softly I said, “Thank you for never giving up on your faith and for praying for me as you have over the years.”
Looking benevolently down at me she shook her head, “Son I lost my faith many times and I stopped praying at all for long periods of time. Thankfully however my salvation isn’t based on what I can manage to do though. My God has kept me to this day and it’s only through His grace that I am a woman of prayer and faith now. I thank Him for this even as I thank Him for a son like you. Remember this Siringo that no matter what happens in the next few hours we are a people who have our destiny shepherded over by the Lord of creation. We cannot fail in any endeavor we undertake when we are right with the Creator of all life.”
“Here you are telling me that you’ve lost your faith at times, only to be preaching at me now?” I teased.
“Not preach, but rather bear witness too. There’s a difference. There’s no need for you to think in your mind that I’m some kind of super woman as I am not.”
“Mother you will always be a super woman in my eyes.”
Smiling she laid her head on top of mine as we both looked out into space waiting for the inevitable engagement of our lives and futures to occur.