Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship Read online

  Mike’s War

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Books by Saxon Andrew

  Introduction

  “Adams, I need you and Jeanette to come to my ship.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m in orbit above the Assembly’s Central Governing Planet.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you when you arrive. You need to hurry.”

  “We’re on our way.”

  Adams looked up and said, “Tuffy, I need you to take us to…”

  “I know; the Government Planet.”

  “Do you know what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know, Jeanette. Mike sounds like he’s upset about something. He wants us to join him in orbit above the Assembly’s Planet and that, in and of itself, is very unusual.”

  “I didn’t think we were allowed to go there.”

  “We’re not. Matter of fact, none of the Human Q Ships or any species not in the Assembly are allowed in that space. Something serious must have happened.” The Q ship disappeared from normal space and a moment later appeared above a beautiful green and blue planet. Jeanette looked at Adams, “There’s another Q Ship in orbit beside Mike’s ship.”

  The computer interrupted, “Actually, there are three ships in orbit. The third is hidden behind the other two.”

  “Whose ships are they, Tuffy?”

  “One is Peter and the one next to it is Mike’s Q-ship; I don’t recognize the other one. It appears to have just come off the assembly line. It’s one of the newer models.”

  “Dock with Mike’s ship.” Adams watched Mike’s ship instantaneously appear next to his and he looked at Jeanette, “Something’s happened.”

  Jeanette was putting her long black hair up in a ponytail, “Don’t get worried; we’ll find out in a few moments.” Adams nodded and heard the landing bay door make contact with Mike’s Q Ship. He followed Jeanette to the landing bay and waited at the port for the connection to complete. He stared at his wife and was amazed at her beauty. He knew she was as tough as nails but her smile still overwhelmed him. Her blue eyes looked troubled but she hid it the moment she saw him staring at her. She took his hand and gave it a slight squeeze as the light on the port turned orange and the portal slid up into the ship’s hull. They saw Jesse waiting for them in the other landing bay.

  “Jesse, it’s been a long time.”

  “Too long, Adams. Come with me to the bridge.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Mike will explain; I’d rather you wait and hear it from him.”

  Adams looked at Jeanette and she smiled, “OK, you can start worrying now.”

  They followed Jesse through the ship and saw Mike, Tilly, Elle, and Hetzel sitting together in the center of the bridge. Mike saw them enter and stood up to greet them, “Take a seat; we have an issue to discuss.”

  Adams and Jeanette shook Mike’s hand and skipped saying hello to everyone as they went to two empty chairs. Jesse went and sat down beside Elle. “What’s going on Mike?”

  “Hetzel has made a request and I want you to hear it.”

  Adams looked at Hetzel and he looked extremely uncomfortable. His normally light green colored skin was a deeper shade. Adams knew from past experience that a Neman with that color was stressed out. Hetzel looked at Mike, “You should tell him. I think you can explain it better than me.”

  Mike sighed, slowly shook his head and then looked at Adams, “The Central Government has requested that Earth be rearmed.”

  Adams stared at Mike and then looked at Jeanette. She was just as shocked as he was. He looked at Jesse and Elle and they could only shrug. He turned back to Mike, “What exactly do you mean by armed?”

  “He wants Earth to rebuild its military forces.”

  Adams stared at Mike and then looked at Hetzel, “You can’t be serious?”

  “I’m embarrassed more than you know to ask; but yes, we want you to rearm your planet and retrain your populations on how to wage war.”

  Adam’s scowl was instantaneous, “Are you out of your ever loving Neman mind? You forced us to disarm or be destroyed. You gave us no other options and most of my planet hates you for being so heavy handed with us. We were better off before you showed up.”

  Hetzel looked at Mike and then turned back to Adams, “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

  “And now it isn’t? Do you have any idea what your actions have caused!”

  Mike shook his head and quickly said, “Let it go, Adams.”

  Hetzel said, “No, let him say what he has to say.”

  Adams’ anger was clear, “You removed every weapon on the planet. You knew my species has a violent side and just removing weapons didn’t stop the crazies from attacking innocent people. They used knives, hatchets, and any other dangerous object they could get their hands on. The means to control them was taken away by your government.”

  Hetzel lifted his hands, “The ones that attack are removed.”

  “But what about the ones they attacked? You removed anything they could use to defend themselves. Sure, the attackers were hunted down and killed, but that was after their victims were often murdered or maimed. The attacks have not gone down but have risen in number. You don’t remove a million years of violent behavior just by removing weapons. What you did was to place billions in danger. Now you want to rearm Earth; for God’s sake why; so you have an excuse to destroy the planet?”

  “No, we’re prepared to promise that your planet will not be harmed if you agree to our request.”

  “What if we don’t?”

  “Then all of those that live on our worlds, including Earth, will be destroyed or enslaved.”

  Adams was stunned by the comment and he looked at Mike and saw him nod. He looked back at Hetzel and saw he was serious. Jesse said, “I don’t know if we can do it even if we wanted. It’s been fifteen years since we had to fight for anything and the government has been heavy handed in dealing with anyone that is willing to fight for their beliefs. Earth is not a happy place to live at this particular moment in time.”

  Hetzel looked at Jesse, “You have to try. Our existence depends on it.”

  Adams looked at Jeanette and saw her smiling. “What?”

  “It’s good to be a warrior, my love.” Adams stared at her and after a moment, nodded. Anything was better than what was happening now.

  Chapter One

  Hetzel stood in the center of the U shaped table and faced the forty chosen leaders of mankind. Only the Leader in the center of the U would speak. The others would be given permission to speak to ask questions and vote on any resolution; but it was the man in the center where the real power now resided on Earth. Yehao Qiangguo listened to Hetzel answer questions directed at him from the others at the table and Mike saw him occasionally glance at him. It was clear Yehao didn’t like Mike. He saw a possible adversary and knew Mike could have his position just by running for it. The former countries with the largest populations elected the current leaders. China’s population w
as too large to prevent the world’s leader from being Chinese.

  Mike saw the former President of the United States sitting next to Yehao on the right side of the U and could see he was not at all happy with what was being discussed. Mike sighed and Tilly looked at him. Mike leaned over and whispered, “He’s not happy.”

  Tilly leaned in and said, “Can you blame him?” Mike shook his head.

  The questioning continued for more than an hour. Finally, Yehao said, “You want us to go and save you from a nasty civilization that has invaded one of your planets?”

  Hetzel knew he was now speaking with the one who controlled what was going to happen. “Actually, they have now invaded four planets and yes, I do.”

  “And if we don’t, you say this species will be moving to conquer the rest of your worlds as well as Earth?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just how do you know this?”

  “We’ve seen their probes above all our planets and one of them is above Earth as we speak.”

  Silence crashed down on the gathering. Yehao looked at Mike sitting in the gallery and said, “Is what he is saying true?” Mike nodded. “You have seen this probe?”

  “Yes, I have.”

  Yehao looked at Hetzel, “Does it not enter your mind that if we start doing as you want, we will be the first place this species will attack?”

  “No, we will prevent that happening. We will simultaneously remove all of the probes from all of our planets including yours. They will not see you building your forces.”

  “What’s to prevent another probe?”

  “Your Q ships will prevent them from operating here.”

  Yehao stared at Hetzel and then looked around the room. He finally stared at the former President of the United States, “You are given permission to discuss this with him.”

  The President looked shocked and said, “Why?”

  “Because it will be your people that will take on the bulk of this burden should we decide to do as he asks; the United States was the most powerful nation before we disarmed.”

  Jack Stanton looked at Hetzel, “I don’t understand why you need us? You are so far ahead of us technologically that I refuse to believe you must have our help.”

  “We are far ahead of you; but we are so far behind you in building the weapons that will stop these creatures that we can’t catch up in time to prevent them from conquering all of us.”

  Jack shook his head and Mike stood up, “May I speak.”

  Jack looked at Mike and then at Yehao. Yehao stared at Mike then looked at the other representatives around the table. It was clear they wanted to hear what he had to say. He turned to Mike, “Perhaps you can shed some light on this that is not being shined at the moment.”

  Mike smiled, “The Gracken are more advanced than Hetzel’s civilization in beam technology. The Assembly has no beam weapon that can penetrate their heavy force fields fast enough to survive their blasters. However, the Gracken’s beams will not penetrate Hetzel’s most powerful force fields without extensive bombardment. The Q ships cannot harm their vessels before their force fields fail; however, the Q’s can be killed if enough of the Gracken beams are fired at them.” Mike looked at Hetzel, “Am I accurate so far?” Hetzel nodded. Mike looked at Yehao, “The Gracken force fields will not stop solid projectiles.” Yehao’s eyes narrowed. “The old projectile weapons used on earth can make it through their defenses.”

  Yehao shook his head and nodded toward Hetzel, “None of our weapons would penetrate their force fields.”

  Mike nodded, “They still wouldn’t make it through the Q ship’s force fields; however, they will penetrate the ones being used by this aggressive civilization.”

  “How does that make sense? Even our nuclear missiles didn’t faze their Q ships.”

  Mike stared at Yehao a moment and said, “A nuclear weapon won’t faze a Gracken ship either. It’s one of the twists of technology that the more advanced it becomes, the more vulnerable it is to simple things. Energy weapons will not penetrate their defensive force fields but you could throw a rock at one of their ships and hit it. The Assembly does not have any weapons other than energy beams. Our primitive technology could actually be quite effective against them.”

  Yehao looked at Hetzel, “We could rebuild the factories and provide you with the weapons you need.”

  Hetzel shook his head, “It takes more than a weapon to make someone a warrior. My civilization has been at peace so long that none of us even know how to think about using a weapon. They would be useless in our hands.”

  “You didn’t seem to have a problem using your Q ships to kill planets.”

  “And, if it simply required pressing a button and watching a beam hit something, we could probably pull that off. But the thing that one needs to charge into an enemy’s ranks firing a weapon is not something we are capable of doing. Your species is the only hope we have at stopping them.”

  “We’ve been at peace for fifteen years. It took three years to bring order out of the chaos before we could enjoy peace. What makes you think we can do as you want?”

  “We hope that there are those still living on your planet that remember the skills they once used against each other. Many of them might remember their training.”

  Yehao’s eyes narrowed, “You killed all the other civilizations that could be helping you against this menace. In your haste to eradicate hostile civilizations you destroyed what could be your salvation now.” Hetzel took a deep breath and nodded. “What’s to prevent you from destroying us if we’re able to defeat this new enemy?”

  “We will give your planet full membership in our society with a vote in the Central Chamber. We will provide access to all our technology and open trade with you. We will also agree to never attack or harm you again.” Yehao looked at the others sitting at the table and saw they didn’t like what they were hearing. Then Hetzel changed their minds. “I think you should understand that your planet will be the one chosen to defend all of us. Every planet in our society will do all they can to garner your favor. Your world will become the richest and most modern planet in our civilization.”

  The realization of what Hetzel said stuck home and Yehao saw the change in the ones at the table. “You will leave and wait on our decision.”

  Hetzel bowed, turned, and walked toward the exit. Mike and Tilly stood to go with him and Yehao said, “Don’t leave the building; I might have some questions.”

  Mike looked back at him and lowered his head. He and Tilly joined Hetzel and walked out of the huge room. Mike whispered, “That went well.”

  Hetzel turned to him and shook his head, “You’re using sarcasm again. You know I don’t understand you when you do that.”

  “I’m serious. You could have skipped everything else and gone straight to telling them what was in it for them and saved a lot of time.” Hetzel’s eyes narrowed. Mike shook his head, “Humans are dreamers. Everyone in that room now sees themselves as sitting in your Central Chamber representing Earth and controlling more wealth than they could ever use. They’ll come to a way to make this happen.”

  Tilly looked at Mike, “You’re being rather cynical.”

  Mike shrugged, “I wish I were. I know politicians and people in power. They took that bait; hook, line, and very large sinker. I could see it in Yehao’s eyes. The only reason he rules the government is that very few countries can out vote the Chinese and there are too many old fears preventing them from working together. Yehao is driven by ambition and his ego wants even larger domains. I suspect he sees himself ruling the Alliance.”

  Hetzel looked at Mike, “I hope you’re right about this. We need him to agree to help us.”

  “I almost wish I were wrong.” Hetzel looked sharply at Mike, “I said almost.”

  “So you think they’ll agree to rearm the planet?”

  “No.”

  Hetzel shook his head, “You are the most damnably confusing being I’ve ever encountered.”

  “H
e won’t agree to anything that could remove him from power. Wait and see what they come up with. I think you’ll find it interesting.”

  Tilly looked at Mike, “Do you know what they’re going to do?”

  Mike smiled, “Get rid of the crazies.” Tilly stared at Mike and almost agreed with Hetzel.

  • • •

  Ten hours later, Hetzel was called back into the World Building. Mike and Tilly were also told to report and Mike took Adams and Jeanette with him.

  Adams scowled, “Why did you bring us here?”

  “I’m going to need your council.”

  “Don’t you really mean someone to share the blame?”

  “Same thing.”

  Jeanette snickered. Adams looked at her with a frown, “Hey, this isn’t funny. I don’t like being anywhere near those people. I walk away feeling like I’ve been in a cesspool.”

  Jeanette looked at Mike, “Tell him he’s not going to have to speak.”

  Mike looked at Adams, “You won’t have to speak.”

  Adams’ head went down and he said, “Then you won’t mind if I wait outside?”

  Tilly said, “Shut up you big baby. You’d be mad if Mike didn’t have you here.”

  Adams shook his head, “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  Mike shrugged, “You never feel good about anything.”

  “That’s not true; I feel great about my wife.”

  “I stand corrected.” Mike glanced at Adams as they entered the huge room, “She’s here so you should feel great.”

  Adams saw the forty rulers of Earth at the front of the room and shook his head, “They trump my good feelings.” Jeanette punched him in the ribs and he winced, “Well, they almost trump my good feelings.”

  Jeanette mouthed, “That’s better.” Adams nodded and sat down beside Mike. Jeanette leaned forward and smiled at Tilly who leaned over Mike and Adams and kissed her on the cheek, “Good to see you, Jeanie.”

  Mike leaned back and waited for Yehao to speak.

  • • •

  Hetzel stood in front of the forty Representatives and waited for them to start the meeting. Yehao finally looked at him and said, “We have discussed your proposal and have a few questions.”