Annihilation - Tommy's Tale (Annihilation Series (Book Four)) Read online

  Kosiev smiled and said, “Yes it is. Tag has managed to find me in the skin of the old Moscow and bring me back home. I’ll give you the details later, but I’m back and for me no time has passed at all since the Moscow’s destruction.”

  Mikado looked at the screen and said, “Thank the Creator; I’ve thought of you every day since we lost you. Please come see me as soon as you can. This is a gift greater than any I’ve ever received.”

  Kosiev looked at Mikado and said, “I’ll do that, Lin. It’s good to see you.”

  Tag came on the call and said, “Admiral, the Queen wishes to tell the Realm of Admiral Kosievs’ return but as soon as we can we’ll get together.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you for finding my mentor.” The screen went dark and Mikado left the conference room and returned to the bridge. The crew immediately saw that something had happened and that the Admiral was in a high state of emotion. They all looked at him and he said to them, “Pass the word to the entire crew; Admiral Kosiev has been raised from the dead and is back among the living. By the Creator, he’s back.”

  The crew looked at each other wondering if their commander had lost his mind but they announced the news over the general ship frequency. Every one of the crewmen on board had seen the destruction of the Moscow during their academy training and the entire ship was wondering about Mikado’s sanity until the announcement came in from Castle Gardner that the news was true; Kosiev was back. The entire Stars Realm was stunned but then the celebrations began. The Realm’s greatest hero was alive and in this time of fear, it brought a new sense of courage and belief that the Realm would prevail. Kosiev was back.

  Chapter 18

  Kosiev sat in the library at Castle Gardner while Twig fed all of the history of the Stars Realm since the destruction of the Moscow into his mind. The previous three days had been a mad rush from celebration to celebration. Tgon-Gee, Admiral Mikado, and the Eldest of the Algeans had come to welcome him home. He acted in high spirits but he felt that time had passed him by and left him with nothing to do. The thought of these new ships and the race of Captors that the Realm was now fighting for survival left him hollow inside. He was used to being in the center of all the action and now he knew he was not going to be where he wanted to be. The Statue of him at the fleet academy and the outright adoration of everyone he encountered only served to make him feel like he should have just stayed dead. How could he possibly live up to the legend that had been built around him? “Oh, well, I’ve never met a legend before. At least my actions saved the fleet.” He then thought about Tag and how he now looked as old as he did. According to what he had been told, he had died more than twenty six years ago but Tag did not look twenty six years older. As he thought about it, Danielle didn’t either. “I’ll have to ask him about that.”

  Then he leaned back on the couch and Twig entered his mind and began the transfer of information. He closed his eyes and felt the rush of new knowledge. He stayed like that for two days which only seemed like a couple of hours.

  Twig began the transfer and sorted the information into his memory centers and organized it so that it would make it seem like he had lived all of the time that he had been gone. She also looked into his mind and got a full account of the war between the Realm and her race. She was amazed that the humans had worked to prevent the destruction of her species after all the worlds that the Algeans had destroyed and harvested. “I’ve got to share this with Sprig,” she thought and then focused on the transfer.

  Kosiev opened his eyes and blinked. “Wow, a lot has happened,” he looked at Twig and said, “Thank you. It’s like I’ve been here living all of this history. Now I know what I’ve missed. I also noticed that you’ve given me a full understanding of the new ships, weapons, and teleportation devices.”

  “Admiral, how can you be an asset if you don’t know how everything works? I suspect you will be put to work shortly.”

  “I really hope so, Twig. At least I won’t be lost now in the details. How did you do this?”

  “We’ve learned how to download information in tremendous quantities and organize it. This transfer was really rather simple and I think that if you focus on a problem you’ll find what you need to know in your mind now.”

  Kosiev smiled and stood up, “It’s time to go to work. I’m truly glad we came to be friends with your species. I would have never guessed that we would become friends during the time of our conflict.”

  “You have Queen Rose and Admiral Dorg to thank for that.”

  Kosiev frowned and said, “I wish he were still alive. I grew to have a tremendous respect for that Cainth. We could use him now.”

  Twig lifted her limbs indicating a smile and said, “We feel the same way about you, Admiral.”

  Kosiev smiled and, “Thank you again; I hope I can meet your expectations. Do you know if Cade McAllister is still around?”

  “Yes he is; he’s retired and living on Ross.”

  “Will you give me his com number; I need to talk with him about an idea I have.”

  Twig put the number in Kosievs’ mind and he left the library to make a call.

  Five days later Tag, Danielle, Rose, Tommy, Cassandra, Tgon-Gee, Admirals Mikado, O’Donald, and recently promoted McAnn were in the map room of Castle Gardner discussing the upcoming battle with the Captors. Tommy said, “We have to attack within twelve weeks. The places in space that the Captors use to see the universe will be cooled enough for them to find us in sixteen weeks. We have to prevent them from seeing the planets of the Realm. We’re only going to have 150,000 ships to fight more than four million of the Captors and if you look at their world you’ll see that they are staged in multiple layers expecting us to come.”

  Danielle looked at Tommy and said, “Why can’t you heat those nerve centers again?”

  Cassandra shook her head and said, “Last time I entered one of those centers, I almost exploded the energy particle in it. If I had, it would have created at new universe with a big bang. I’ve gotten a better feel for what is happening in that particle and I don’t think that it will endanger our universe but I also sense that now is not the time for it to happen. I don’t know for certain what the consequences would be if it happened too soon.”

  Admiral Mikado frowned and said, “How are we going to do this? Are we just going to jump in and start shooting or do you have another plan?”

  Tommy looked at Cassandra and saw that she was letting him come up with the strategy for the battle but Tommy was just not certain if what he was planning would work. “If we just jump in and start shooting, we will be barraged by millions of those energy balls that can destroy our ships. We have to come up with a strategy that allows our ships to escape those barrages.”

  The door to the map room opened and Admiral Kosiev and Cade McAllister entered. “I hope you don’t mind if we join you,” Kosiev said. “I understand you are working on the battle plans for the upcoming campaign against the Captors.”

  Rose stood and went to meet Kosiev and said, “We are and you’re certainly welcome to join us. We just thought that you needed some time to get up to speed.” She then hugged him and indicated two chairs at the end of the table. “Hello, Colonel McAllister, I thought you were retired.”

  “I am your Majesty, but Admiral Kosiev contacted me and asked me some questions that generated my interest.”

  Tag looked at his two old friends and said, “Uh oh, you have that look on your faces.”

  Kosiev smiled and said, “Some things never change.” He then set a bag of popcorn on the table with a drink and said, “You’re stuck on how to attack without losing ships.”

  Tommy did a double take and said, “As a matter of fact we are. How did you know that?”

  “It’s obvious. However, I want to discuss an idea I have about getting the numbers even before we take them on ship to ship.”

  Tommy cocked his head to the side and said, “I’m all ears.”

  Kosiev looked at McAllister and
he stepped out of the room and came back in holding a white ball about four feet in diameter. Kosiev leaned back and said, “This is a ball made of Coronado Power Cells. I learned that we are now able to mold the cells into any shape we need.”

  Tommy looked at the ball and said, “Is this something significant?”

  McAllister said, “What would happen if we pushed this ball into the skin of the Kosiev?”

  Cassandra immediately said, “It would take on the characteristics of the skin.”

  “Exactly, and if it were put in next to the dark matter inside that skin,” Kosiev asked?

  Cassandra thought a moment and said, “It would probably absorb some of the dark matter into it and then float back to the surface.”

  Kosiev smiled and said, “That’s what I thought. Right now you fire the penetrators through the skin of the Kosiev and send a piece of dark matter at the target. It’s similar to firing a projectile weapon in that the dark matter cannot change direction once it leaves the skin. If you fire it too far away, the Captors just move away which means you have to close to use it effectively.” Kosiev took a handful of popcorn and put it in his mouth and began chewing it.

  Tommy watched him and said, “Is there a point here?”

  Kosiev smiled and said, “I checked on the penetrators we used in our last battle with the Algeans and found out that we still have two million in our stockpile.”

  Rose said, “Those weapons have no affect on the Captors. Their screens stop them with no damage.”

  Kosiev said, “What would happen if each of those penetrators had one of these balls in it instead of hornets and that ball fired the dark matter into the Captor upon impact?”

  The room was silent. Everyone thought about what Kosiev said and Tag said, “Then the dark matter would be pushed into the Captors screens,”

  “Exactly,” said Kosiev. “You use the old two screen penetrators and jump them less than a mile from the Captor. The penetrator will accelerate before it jumps so it should come out of its jump at full speed and cover that distance in less than a hundredth of a second.”

  Tommy thought furiously and said, “But you have to know the exact location of the ships you target in order to jump it in that close and there are millions of them that are constantly moving. It would be next to impossible to target them on individual ships.”

  Kosiev looked at McAllister again and he went back to the door, opened it, and nodded. Twig and Sprig entered and Kosiev said, “Tell them what you’ve seen in the Captor’s system.”

  Sprig looked around the room and said, “I guess you wonder how we would target the penetrators?” He looked around the room and saw everyone looking at him so he continued, “Normally the Captors are moving around their system but I’ve seen Cassandra’s view of their system and they have changed their tactics anticipating our attack.” Sprig punched a button on his com and a picture of the Captor’s system appeared on the room’s maid display. Everyone saw row upon row of Captor ships arranged in bands surrounding the planet. The ships were not moving and were arranged in globes around the planet. Twig said, “We have the coordinates of every ship in the system. We should be able to program the old penetrators so that one is assigned to the ships located in the two outer bands.”

  Tommy looked at Kosiev and said, “How do you make the balls release their dark matter on impact?”

  Kosiev looked at McAllister again and Cade stood and said, “We put a miniature penetrator firing mechanism on the ball and have it fire when the penetrator hits the Captor’s screen. The sudden impact will actuate the firing assembly.”

  Tgon-Gee said, “Have you tried this yet?”

  Kosiev smiled and said, “As a matter of fact we have.” The display came on again and a small asteroid more than four miles across appeared on the screen. “Of course this asteroid does not have a screen but for the sake of seeing if the impact will cause the ball to fire, it will give you an idea of what would happen.” The display began moving and suddenly a bright flash appeared close to the asteroid and the asteroid blew up in a huge explosion. Nothing was left. “I’ve had this recording slowed down to one thousandth speed but I think you can see what would happen.”

  Everyone in the room was amazed. Tommy said, “How long before those penetrators can be ready?”

  McAllister said, “If we start manufacturing the balls immediately and our two Algean friends here can begin designating their targeting systems, about four weeks. We will need the Kosiev at the penetrator’s location along with all the other megaships that have had their skins converted to process the balls.”

  Tommy smiled and said, “This will only work once. They won’t remain in a stationary position if this works.”

  Rose said, “Can we produce more of the penetrators in time?”

  McAllister shrugged and said, “No, we disassembled the facilities that manufactured them years ago. It would take more than three months to start producing them again.”

  Cassandra said, “We don’t have that long. Four weeks is cutting it close as it is.”

  Rose stood and said, “Welcome back Admiral Kosiev. You will assume your position as Fleet Admiral again and move your flag to the Alexander Kosiev. You and Tommy will be responsible for the actions against the Captors.”

  Everyone in the room stood and began applauding. Kosiev felt his spirits soar; he was back and there was a battle to be fought. He felt like he was home again.

  Tag looked at his old friend and for a moment was jealous. Then he looked at Tommy and Cassandra and knew that they were better qualified to handle the campaign. He looked at Rose and said, “Permission to be aboard, Your Majesty?”

  Danielle stood up and looked at Tag with consternation on her face but then she heard Rose say, “Permission denied; I am not going to put all of our eggs in one basket. If something happens to the Kosiev, the Realm will need you to lead us.”

  Tag took a deep breath then said, “You’re right.” Then he looked at Kosiev, shook his head, and said, “You always have the most fun; give em torg, Alex.”

  “Kosiev smiled and nodded.

  The Old Watcher thought about the nexus and decided to contact the First Male. “Do you have a moment?”

  The First Male turned his attention from observing the system defenses and said, “I always have time for you.”

  “The nexus should be ready for use in a short time. I’m surprised the strange ships have not attacked us yet.”

  “I am also at a loss. However, if they see our layered defenses they may not want to take us on here in our own system.”

  The old watcher thought for a moment and said, “I hope you are right but that has not stopped them in the past. I just wanted you to know that if they are coming it will be soon.”

  “Thank you, Old Watcher. I’ll place every one on alert.” The First Male contacted the Queen and said, “First Mother, I fear an attack will happen soon. I want you prepared to jump away if the strange ships appear.”

  “Where do you think I will be safer than right here among our warriors?”

  “If they attack, then they will come looking for you and me. They have a weapon that can destroy us if it hits. I want you and your escorts to jump out of the system at the first sign of trouble and keep jumping until I tell you to come back.”

  The First Mother was silent for a long moment and then said, “I want you to jump with me. If it’s not safe for me, it’s not safe for you.”

  “First Mother, I have restrained from leading our attacks, but if I go then we will not have the leadership needed to defeat the enemy. I must refuse in this instance. This is our home and I will not run from its defense.”

  “I know you are right but I want you at the center of our warriors starting now. If it gets dangerous, I order you to save yourself.”

  The First Male fought the impulse to refuse and then said, “I will if I am in danger.”

  “Please don’t be rash. As long as you and I survive our race will live. Do not jeopardi
ze our future.”

  “I won’t First Mother.”

  “Tommy, I’m afraid that I may not be able to avoid igniting the particle in energy space much longer,” Cassandra thought.

  “What’s happening Cassandra?”

  “I am being drawn to the nerve centers, Tommy. Even in my sleep I have to fight entering them. I think that the time has come and I just don’t know what will happen if it ignites.”

  “Sprig, will you and Twig join Cassandra and me for a moment.”

  “Certainly, how can we help you?”

  “Sprig, I am being drawn to the nerve centers of the energy particle. I have the feeling that it is time for it to ignite and I have to fight to stay out. The urge is getting more and more difficult to resist to go in and ignite the particle. “

  “Cassandra, what do you think will happen if the particle ignites,” Twig asked.