Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds Read online

  “Everything is going fine and we’re scheduled to leave in three drags unless there’s something else you want done prior to my departure,” Dorg replied.

  Tag, which was Thomas Gardner’s nickname, said, “As a matter of fact there is. We want to send you two more megaships. We think that you should be supported in your efforts to contact the Dremel and we think each of the original Star’s Realm members should have a representative there.”

  Dorg looked at his two friends on the display and smiled, “Is is also because if things go bad quickly there’s a better chance of at least one of the ships escaping with information of what we encountered and I might not be so aggressive with the welfare of three ships in my trust?”

  Tag and Kosiev looked at each other and Kosiev handed Tag a five credit, “You’re right,” Kosiev said, “He understood immediately.” Kosiev then looked at Dorg on the display and said, “You’re possibly going into a very hostile environment and we don’t know if the Algeans have already discovered the Dremel and have begun harvesting operations. We also don’t know much about the Dremel and you’re too important to risk losing. We also think with more ships involved in this operation you will have more options on possible courses of action; it also increases the chances of survival. I have ordered two of the recently completed megaships to join you and they should be jumping in to meet you within the drag. One of them is a human ship commanded by Captain Mikado and the other is a Glod ship commanded by Ren-Bir. You will have overall command of the squadron and the ships have already completed their pre-jump system evaluations so you should be able to leave on schedule.”

  Dorg had patched the conversation to Tresk’s console as soon as he learned of the two new ships and he noticed that the Commander was listening in on the communication. Dorg looked at Tresk as he said to Tag and Kosiev, “We will probably delay our departure for an additional rotation so that we can meet with the two other ship commanders and iron out our plans for contact.” Tresk looked up from his console and nodded at Dorg indicating his understanding and began issuing new orders to his crew for the delay and to get a meeting space prepared for the upcoming strategy session. “I thought Mikado was a commodore,” Dorg said to Kosiev.

  “He was in the Directorate Navy but he transferred to the Stars Realm Fleet and lost a rank,” Kosiev answered. “He should make up ground quickly.”

  Tag smiled at the Cainth Warrior and said, “If you think of anything else you might need, com us and let us know. We will also have thirty of the old ultra ships on standby ready to jump in to support you if things go bad. Com Kosiev with the coordinates of the Dremels system as soon and you make contact and let us know what you discover.”

  Dorg nodded, “Your orders will be followed. Let us hope the standby ships are not needed. Thank you and I’ll contact you upon our arrival in the Dremels system; and once again, congratulations on your new child Mr. Gardner.”

  Tag smiled and nodded then Kosiev and Tag looked away from their screen and the connection was broken.

  Dorg sat back in his chair and thought about possibly facing one of the Algean fleets that had more than a hundred thousand ships. Some of those ships were more than twenty miles long and were fully armed with beams and missiles. He noticed on his systems console that the weapons officer had reported that all systems were fully operational and armed. If the Plants had already started attacking the Dremel, then all he could probably do was just jump away. The upcoming conflict was frightening in the scale of the enemy they were going to face but the warrior part of him actually reveled in the opportunity to fight the good fight. He remembered the recordings of the Plant Fleet that attacked the Pydres Planet and totally defeated them then began eating the population as they started harvesting all organic life on the planet. They had to be stopped now before they grew too big for anything to slow them down. Dorg looked at Tresk again and wondered if his ship was going to be strong enough to survive in the upcoming conflict. “We’ll soon know,” he thought.

  Chapter 3

  Danielle and Leila were sitting in her nursery on Earth discussing the multitude of requests for the Queen’s time. Rose had been born eight days earlier and Danielle had asked Leila to come in and update her on her schedule. Danielle was overwhelmed and was beginning to get frustrated. She sighed and gazed out the windows at Central City which was spread out below her home and extended as far as the eye could see. White hazy clouds covered the floors 40 stories below and the sun was reflected off the 4,000 foot tall buildings around her. It was a beautiful spring day on Earth and she was looking forward to taking Rose out for her first exposure to sunshine. She almost wished she was a medical technician again, but then she would have never met Tag; all of this was worth it just to have him in her life. Being queen was not something she would have ever chosen but now that the job was hers, she needed to learn to handle the pressures. She held Rose and listened to Leila as Rose was given a bottle of milk. She looked at Leila and said, “I just don’t see how I can meet all the requests. I’m only one person and there are 832 worlds out there demanding my presence. With a new baby taking a lot of my time,” Danielle hesitated for a moment and then said, “Leila, what am I going to do? I have no idea what a queen is supposed to do. This title was thrust on me and I’m not sure I’m up to the task.”

  Leila came over and placed her hand over Danielle’s and said in a soft voice, “Danielle, you can’t do what they’re asking and they know it. They assume that it won’t hurt to ask; all of them would dearly love you to visit them. However, I disagree with your assessment about yourself. I know you and there’s no one else I would trust with the power you’ve been given. You just have to make the decisions that feel right to you. I have not seen you make a bad one yet which leads me to something that you should think about. There’s a problem that will eventually come up that you will need to plan to solve.”

  “What is that?”

  “If you make Earth your center of government, then how long before other races start to feel you might be playing favorites? You’re loved, but there is a certain jealousy about your being here so much.”

  Danielle thought for a minute and said, “You’re right, however whatever planet I choose, all the others will feel slighted.” Danielle thought a moment and said, “Excuse me, Leila; I want to talk with Tag about this.”

  Leila stood left to go to her office. “Tag,” Danielle thought.

  “Oh hi, Love. What’s going on?” Tag replied.

  Danielle knew that Tag was in a star’s system light years away testing new weapons but the link that the Alfont Ship had given them allowed them to hear each other’s thoughts no matter how far they were from each other. She was thankful that Atlas had given them that gift. “I was just talking with Leila and she brought up a point about the location of my home and how others may feel slighted if I have it on Earth. Do you think she’s making a valid point?”

  “It’s not what I think, it’s what you sense. You know you’re far better than I am at seeing things you encounter; it’s your psychic gift. Did it sound true to you?”

  “Yes it does, however, no matter where I put it; all the members of the Stars Realm will have a problem with me not selecting them. I do know that being from Earth will cause sentiment that I might be playing favorites with my own race if I choose to stay here.”

  “Let’s get Atlas involved in this. Atlas, are you listening in?”

  “I wasn’t until Danielle thought about the link I gave you. Congratulations on your new baby.”

  “Thank you, Atlas,” Danielle thought, “Do you have any ideas about how I get around this issue of playing favorites in selecting the location of my home?”

  The ancient Alfont Ship hesitated then said, “Danielle, you must select a location that has a valid reason for its selection. All your subjects want is to know why you chose to be where you are. Is there a place that no other planet can match for its selection?”

  Danielle reflected a moment and thought bac
k, “Obviously, Earth, Cainth, and Glod as the original members and founders of the Stars Realm would make sense but selecting any one of them would still cause the other two to feel slighted.”

  Tag could sense her frustration and wanted to protect her from bad feelings so soon after Rose was born; he said, “Danielle, I don’t see a way out of this box; you’re just going to have to choose and the others will just have to understand.”

  “I guess. Let me think about it.”

  “Tag,” Atlas said, “Admiral Dorg is leaving shortly for the Dremels system and is planning to meet with them. It was a good idea to send Klas with him to interpret. I must say that his new ship really impressed the Pydres and the Human Colonists on Ross when he showed up to bring him on board while Dorg was at the hospital.”

  “Those ships are very impressive,” Tag thought back.

  “That’s it!” said Danielle.

  “What’s it?” said Tag.

  “Ross will be the new capital and my home.”

  Tag and Atlas both were silent for a moment then Atlas said, “Ross is the site of the opening conflict between the Alliance and Humans.”

  “It was also where 20% of the colonists were executed by the Cainth and our first marine casualties happened,” Tag added.

  “It’s where everything started that eventually led to the formation of the Stars Realm,” Danielle said, “and I can say I’ve chosen it to honor the ones that lost their lives to make everything possible. The Cainth, the Glod, and Humans along with thirty three other planets all lost some of their citizens in that first battle at Ross and the subsequent fleet action. No other planet can say it was first.”

  “It’s an excellent choice, Danielle,” Atlas said, “and as undeveloped as it is, no one can accuse you of playing any kind of favorite in its selection.”

  “Can you be satisfied living there instead of one of the more developed planets?” Tag asked. “There is little in the way of urban development.”

  Danielle smiled, “How long do you think it will remain undeveloped if we announce that my new capital will be located there? It will become the center for all races to come visit. I can see a huge tourist trade just to sightsee. It also has a very small population and I suspect that a lot of our members will have some of their people move to Ross to be near the government center. It also has all the natural resources necessary to build the structures needed as the population grows. We will also make sure we don’t overdevelop like Sten’s planet; we’ll make sure we keep enough agriculture to support our population. Trust me, it will develop faster than we imagine.”

  “Well, when are you going to make the announcement?” Tag asked.

  Danielle laughed and said, “Soon. We need to start construction on a place to live with a nursery.” Danielle pressed a button on her com and said, “Leila, would you please come back in!”

  “Talk with you later, Love,” Tag thought.

  “Leila, we are going to make Ross our new capital.”

  Leila looked shocked for a moment then said, “No one can argue with that choice with all the new history that was written there. I’ll notify the government on Ross of our selection and swear them to secrecy then I will send Eric to select the site of our government center. Once that’s selected and we’ve guaranteed the property, you’ll need to release a notice to the members of the Realm and let them know of our new home. Danielle, it’s the perfect choice. No one can feel slighted. I suspect a large number of companies will follow you there.”

  “I think you’re right.” Danielle felt a warm glow from Rose and she thought, “Oh, you approve also. I love you little one.” The glow got warmer. Danielle closed her eyes and felt her child lying on her breast.

  Tag looked at Kosiev and noticed him watching while he was communicating with Danielle. “We’re ready to begin our trial of the new needles,” Kosiev said.

  “Let’s see what they can do, what’s the target?”

  “It’s the old Los Angeles. We have a new megaship being launched in a week using that name so we’re going to use the old one to see if our needles are stronger. Our old needles would not have penetrated the screens of the Los Angeles.”

  “Well, let’s see what we’ve got,” Tag said.

  Kosiev turned on his com and said, “Power up the screens and let me know when Los Angles is at full power.”

  Ensign Orton said, “Screens are at full power, Sir.”

  “Weapons, fire when ready,” Kosiev ordered.

  Tag watched the display showing the Los Angeles hidden behind its screen when suddenly an intensely bright light flashed out from the Moscow and hit the Los Angeles. The beam went completely through the ship and out the other side. “Holy Groad,” Tag said.

  “I was afraid of that,” Kosiev said. “We shot her through her tail so as not to damage her screen generators. Let’s move away to about 70 miles and give it another try.”

  “Admiral, can you use the needles for close in fighting if it goes thru the ship you’re firing at?”

  “What we will have to do is make the beam wider. Instead of punching a three foot hole in the target, we’ll have to adjust the needle to a ten foot circumference. That should contain it in the target.”

  “If you puncture a ten foot hole in a ship, do you really need to use the hornets?” Tag asked.

  “You’ve seen some of those Algean ships. Some of them are more than twenty miles in length. We need that big a hole to get enough hornets inside to blow it up. The hornets are programmed so that the first ones to enter the ship will blow holes through the walls so that the others can scatter throughout the target. Let’s see if this is a good range now. Weapons fire when ready,” Kosiev commanded.

  Tag watched the display of the Los Angeles and the intense beam struck her again and burned a hole thru her hull but did not penetrate out the other side. “One more shot weapons but this time I want 10 hornets loaded into the needle; fire when ready.”

  Tag saw that the screen was still working on the wounded ship; it was pretty good shooting to miss the screen generators at this distance. Once again the beam struck and burned a hole in the hull but this time the ship exploded into a huge explosion that shot debris in all directions. “What have we learned Admiral?” Tag asked amazed at how fast the hornets destroyed the Battleship.

  “Well, it looks like our standard size needle is good on normal ships out to ninety miles. If a standard ship gets closer than twenty miles we will have to expand the needle to thirty feet wide to prevent total penetration. We will write into the needles software the parameters based on distance. There are three hundred needle ports on the new Megaships and there are three gunnery crews handling one hundred each. We need that many because of the numbers of ships we expect to encounter. We also have a brand new weapon that has been developed out of our needle technology.”

  “Do I dare ask what it is?” Tag said.

  Kosiev said, “Currently, our ships do not use missiles over long distances. We have to wait for the enemy to come into range and fire at them with our screen weapons. Our weapon scientists have developed a pulse penetrator.”

  “What is that?”

  “It’s similar to a needle. An energy cannon shoots a pulsed beam containing anywhere from 10 to 500 hornets thru our screen and it leaves using a Coronado Cell for propulsion. The hornet’s guidance system inside the pulse will be attracted by any ship that doesn’t have a Coronado Screen within 300 miles. It will penetrate the screen of most ships and release its hornets. This is a shoot and ignore weapon. Like the hornets, it will designate a ship with its Coronado sensors and once illuminated, the other pulsed penetrators will ignore that target and search for one that is not illuminated. If the penetrator doesn’t destroy the ship, once its illumination beam ends, other penetrators will lock on the target.”