Fighting for Melbourne Read online

  Lights were illuminating, and Abby looked out into the huge room. “Taffy, why have you built this underground?”

  “The robots have constructed underground armor protected homes for our citizens. If New Britannia is ever attacked, the population will move underground and defend the planet from under the planet’s surface.” Taffy shrugged, “We purchased the armor for the rest of the underground homes from Melbourne before they quarantined us from any future sales.”

  “What do you mean by defend the planet?” Maranda asked

  “If we’re attacked, we have a massive defense system build around the planet. If the aliens burn all our cities to the ground and then leave, we just keep on living underground until the alien issue is resolved.” Abby and Maranda stared at Taffy and she added, “You’ve never seen your world attacked and destroyed. Grady and I lived through an alien attack and once you’ve done that, you make plans for it to never happen again.”

  “You’re acting like you’re certain you will be attacked again,” Abby said somberly.

  “Abby, there are three giant advanced civilizations out there that would attack us in a heartbeat to enslave or kill us if they learned of our location. The odds of that happening are not as low as I wish they were. We do what we must to protect the ones we love.”

  Abby stared at Taffy and raised her hands, “Building underground facilities like this is not possible on Melbourne.”

  Taffy shrugged and then nodded, “No, they’re not. They have to be built before the surface buildings are constructed above them.”

  Abby felt a cold shiver run down her spine and then Taffy turned and began showing off her home. Maranda watched from her console and made a decision. If the worst happened and Melbourne was destroyed, she would be coming to New Britannia. At least they planned ahead for any eventuality.

  • • •

  Taffy finally took Abby back to her ship and they shed tears at having to be separated again. Abby boarded her warship and it lifted off New Britannia and headed back to Melbourne. She went to her private office on board the shuttle and stared at the walls. After twenty minutes she activated her computer and dreaded asking a question, “Computer, given all the events that have happened, what are the odds that Melbourne will be found by the aliens or Fagan civilizations?”

  “Working.” Abby waited, and waited some more, for a response. She knew her computer was connected to every major computer system on Melbourne and that the long delay told her volumes about the data being searched by the computer. She also had to believe that she would get a more accurate answer than Taffy could get from her systems. Abby sat up straight as the computer started responding, “The odds of Melbourne being discovered by either the Britannia or Fagan civilizations is sixty-three percent.”

  Abby’s eyes flew wide open, “EXPLAIN!!”

  “The odds of discovery were more than ninety-percent prior to the mission to save America. The Fagan moving their fleets to the other side of their spiral arm lowered them to the current level,” the computer answered.

  “Why are they still so high?”

  “It is only a matter of time until the aliens or Fagan civilizations learn that the Rabbits attacking them are not from either of their forces. That will lead them to suspect that a different civilization has been attacking them. That discovery will cause a search for the civilization that sent the Rabbits.”

  “Estimate how long that will take to happen!”

  “Ninety-percent probability in less than two years, sixty-percent in less than one year. Once they discover that Melbourne exists and has been sending warships to attack them, finding Melbourne will become a high priority for them, possibly even more important than the threat they represent to each other.”

  “WHY?”

  “For the aliens, it was Admiral Henrick’s original Rabbit that led Earth to find them. And it was Admiral Henrick’s formations during the mission to save America that led the Fagan to their territory. They will do all they can to prevent another advanced civilization being led to their territory.”

  Abby’s expression turned fearful as she asked, “Computer, what is Melbourne’s current population?”

  “That figure fluctuates, Prime Minister.”

  “Why?”

  “Because with the exodus of the Americans and the survivors of New Britannia along with the ongoing exodus of Melbourne civilians to the new colonies, Melbourne is losing population each day.”

  “What is the population as of now?”

  “Close to two-billion people live on Melbourne.”

  Abby closed her eyes. There were two-billion people that were probably the walking dead; they just didn’t know it yet. If Melbourne was found, there was no way to prevent Melbourne’s destruction; the fleets just didn’t have enough warships to stop an attack even with the new carriers and Garrions. She sat back in her chair and thought about what was coming. There was still a thirty-seven-percent probability that Melbourne wouldn’t be discovered…but those odds were like Taffy mentioned, lower than she liked. Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she realized that Taffy was talking about the odds of New Britannia being discovered, not Melbourne. Abby ordered, “Computer, connect me with Taffy Henricks.”

  Taffy appeared on the monitor a minute later and smiled. She saw Abby’s expression and her smile vanished, “What’s wrong, Abby?”

  “I need half-a-million robots built and sent to each of Melbourne’s colony planets.” Taffy blinked and was silent. “I will stop the quarantine and send you all the electronic components you need to build them as well as your warships.”

  Taffy stared at Abby and shook her head, “I shouldn’t have shown you my underground quarters. I should have known you would figure it out.”

  “Are you talking about the coming destruction of Melbourne?” Taffy flinched and nodded. “I must do something about this, Taffy.”

  Abby looked to her left and then turned back to the monitor, “I will deed the robot building company on Melbourne to the government free and clear.”

  “Did Grady just agree for you to do that?”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “So, you know what we’re up against?”

  “It’s not a certainty that Melbourne will be found, Abby. However, we have discussed what we could do to help.”

  “What odds have you determined that it will be found?”

  “Eighty-five percent in less than two years, seventy-five percent in less than a year,” Taffy replied.

  Abby was stunned by the odds and shook her head; evidently the Henricks’ computers were better than hers. “How long will it take for your robot company to build that many robots?”

  “They’ve already started building them, Abby. You’ll have what you need in less than four months.”

  “When were you going to tell me about this, Taffy?”

  “As soon as the first million was completed.”

  “Taffy, I’m going to need New Britannia to accept some colonists from Melbourne.”

  Grady suddenly stepped in the monitor’s view and he said forcefully, “That will not happen until the very last minute, Abby!”

  “Why not, Grady?!”

  “Because anyone that lives on New Britannia will know what it means to lose everything!”

  Abby stared at Grady and then nodded, “Can you help us at the end?”

  Grady’s expression was hard, and he replied, “We’ll do what we can when that time arrives.”

  Abby stared at Grady and then said, “That’s why you chose a planet far from Melbourne’s colonies.” Grady nodded. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Abby, you’ll always be welcome here!” Taffy interjected quickly before Abby ended the call.

  Abby shrugged, “You know the old rule about a captain going down with the ship.”

  “Please don’t do that, Abby!” Abby sighed and ended the call. She called Rory and they discussed what to do with the new information. Finally, they worked on an evacuation plan they named the Z
ombie Exercise.

  Chapter Four

  The High Leader was fed up with the attacks on his territory. He contacted the Fleet Manager and said, “It’s time we did something about these attacks!”

  “We’ve stopped them, High Leader. What more can we do?”

  “Take a page out of their book, Admiral. Send all of our older model warships and fortresses out to their space and make them pay for their insolence.”

  “But we may need those ships, High Leader.”

  “You and I both know they’ll be destroyed quickly if the enemy sends their most advanced ships here. We can at least reduce the number of their older vessels and stop their attacks here. It’s time they’re put on the defensive.”

  “You’re going to send the old model fortresses?”

  “Yes, Fleet Manager, I am. Their large vessels are too slow to catch them, and our fortresses can do a huge amount of damage to them. How long until you can launch an attack?”

  “I could do it in a few days if we don’t provision the ships.”

  “Why would we not provision them?”

  “High Leader, I don’t expect any of them to be coming back.”

  The High Leader thought about it for a moment and smiled, “Launch the attack as quickly as possible.”

  “Yes, High Leader.” The fleet manager knew that the crews being sent would know they were being sent to their deaths if their vessels weren’t provisioned. He’d tell them that freighters were being sent later to provision their ships. The crews would do their duty, but they shouldn’t be worried about dying, that would sap their strength. He needed them at their best. He activated his communicator and began issuing orders.

  • • •

  Wade watched the feed coming in from one of his stealth scouts and sat back. It was finally happening; the Fagan were launching an attack against the Britannia Aliens. He stared at the feed and saw they were sending their older model warships. However, he was surprised they were sending a thousand of the older fortresses; those giants could still do some real damage. He contacted fleet and made a suggestion; maybe they’d take it.

  • • •

  Squadron Commander Lilly Parker heard her panel beep and she saw orders coming in from fleet. She read them, and her eyes widened. Could she pull this off, she only had two-hundred Rabbits to make it happen? She contacted her wing commanders and they moved away from the Fagan lines and out into open space. After a day, she found that she lacked four ships to complete her orders. She thought about it then decided. Four stealth scouts flew out and ejected a stealth missile. They programmed the missiles and the scouts left undetected for their primary targets.

  • • •

  Seven days later, the Fagan fleets appeared on Lilly’s monitor and she ordered, Carry out you mission.” Lilly pressed a button on her console and the four missiles immediately activated, went to full speed, and slammed into the four alien scouts that were holding position furthest out from the alien’s territory. The large missiles didn’t explode their warheads. The collision with the scouts at the missile’s speed broke them into rubble killing the crews instantly.

  Lilly watched the alien scouts lined up between the aliens and the incoming Fagan fleets start disappearing from her monitor as her scouts’ missiles destroyed them. The Britannia Alien scouts had all their systems shut down and were invisible to each other. The long line of scouts was hit by heavy missiles and Lilly took out the last scout closest to the alien’s defensive lines. She ordered her scouts to scatter and record the coming battle; this should prove to be quite interesting.

  • • •

  The Fagan Fleet Manager was staring at the large wall monitor and heard his scanning manager announce, “We’re passing wreckage of destroyed enemy scouts.”

  “How many?”

  “We’ve passed more than a hundred and my scanners are picking up more ahead of us.”

  “Is the wreckage old?”

  “No, they are still radiating heat.” The scanning manager looked up, “It appears someone has removed the scouts ahead of us.”

  “Who would do that?”

  “I have no idea, Fleet Manager, but it appears we will arrive at the enemy’s lines with little or no warning.”

  The Fleet Manager leaned forward, “Order all ships to go to maximum speed. We must exploit this advantage!”

  “Fleet Manager, I’m detecting gravity anomalies ahead of us.”

  The Senior Manager asked, “Should we go after those anomalies?”

  “No! We know they’re scouts. We’re sent here to take out the enemy’s large ships. Ignore them and prepare to open fire.”

  • • •

  The Supreme War Leader came running on the giant bridge of his planet killer and heard the alarms going off at high volume. He shut them down from his console as he slid into his chair and looked up at the giant tactical monitor. A huge cloud of warships was moving in on his front line at an incredible speed. None of his ships were moving out to meet them. He turned to his Second-in-Command, “WHY HAVEN’T YOU SENT A RESONSE?”

  “I’m waiting for your orders, War Leader!”

  The War Leader pulled a hand blaster out of the arm of his chair and vaporized his Second. He couldn’t be on the bridge all day. He looked back at the Fagan fleet and knew there was no time to send out ships to stop them; only two minutes remained until contact. He ordered ships from the sides of the attacker to move out and meet them. He turned to his scanning leader, “WHY WEREN’T WE WARNED?!”

  “None of the scouts are reporting! They must have been attacked and destroyed, War Leader.”

  The War Leader watched the Fagan Fleet slam into his lines and knew that the only way the scouts could have been removed was by the invisible scouts used by the first enemy. His six eyes turned to the tactical monitor as thousands of his warships went up in explosions. His color turned bright red as his rage grew.

  • • •

  A huge number of the alien’s advanced warships were destroyed, but not by the blasters on the Fagan warships. They were moving too fast to slow down when their fleet hit the alien’s defensive line and thousands of them crashed into the packed alien warships causing huge explosions. The debris from the collisions flew out into the alien formations at massive speed damaging more warships. The alien formations fell apart as tens of thousands of warships fled to escape the debris. Into the void made by the fleeing warships, the Fagan fortresses flew in and began moving out into the alien formations on each side of them.

  The advanced alien warships were not prepared to take on the Fagan fortresses and they were blown into vapor as the fortresses moved through their ranks. The War Leader ordered the new Planet Killers forward and after a ten-hour fight, the last fortress was destroyed.

  The Fagan scouts turned and fled back to the Sagittarius Arm. The aliens’ lines were so disorganized that ships weren’t sent to chase them down and the War Leader knew afterwards that this new enemy would learn what had happened. The War Leader was furious, further attacks on the new enemy were going to be delayed until this mess was cleaned up. The Supreme Leader appeared on his console and he dreaded the coming conversation. He hoped he survived this confrontation.

  • • •

  The High Leader watched the recording of the battle against the alien’s warships and saw that the older ships were no match for the alien’s new advanced warships and planet killers. He looked at the Fleet Manager on his monitor and he said somberly, “High Leader, that civilization heavily outnumbers our fleets and fortresses.”

  “I CAN SEE THAT!!” The High Leader took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. “We must increase our production.”

  “We’re doing that now, High Leader. However, I don’t think this enemy will be sending another large fleet to attack us anytime soon?”

  “Why not?”

  “High Leader, this enemy is also being attacked by the enemy that came and asked us to join them in attacking this enemy. The Fleet we just
sent destroyed tens of thousands of their old model ships and they don’t have enough of them remaining to launch another attack. They’ll be forced to use their newest vessels and I don’t believe they have enough to send a giant fleet against our space and still be capable of holding off their other enemy. I believe we have time to build up our numbers.”

  “Make sure we are warned if you’re wrong about this!”

  “Yes, High Leader. I’ll send enough scouts out to make sure we know if they launch a fleet to attack us again.”

  The High Leader ended the contact and watched the battle again. He shivered for a moment as he remembered the close call of almost being killed when the aliens broke through his defenses. He thought for a moment and wondered who had destroyed the scouts ahead of his fleet. Something wasn’t right about this.

  • • •

  Admiral Mulvaney was standing at attention in Abby’s office and flinched when she yelled, “WHO AUTHORIZED TAKING OUT THE ALIEN’S SCOUTS AHEAD OF THE FAGAN FLEET!?”

  “Fleet Control, Sir.”

  “DID THEY CONSULT YOU BEFORE MAKING THAT DECISION!?”

  “No, Sir.”

  Abby forced herself to calm down before continuing, “If they had, would you have approved it?”

  Mulvaney struggled and answered, “I probably would have, Prime Minister.”

  Abby glared at him and nodded to a chair, “Sit down, Admiral!” Mulvaney sat down and Abby leaned forward, “Admiral, we have been unable to participate in the alien attacks against the Fagan. We must not do anything to make them notice the absence of our forces. By taking out those scouts, the aliens and ultimately the Fagan, will realize they were removed by invisible ships. I hope the aliens put the blame on Earth’s scouts, but the Fagan currently believe the aliens have invisible scouts. If they realize they were removed by someone else, it could lead to them believing someone else is involved in the fighting. You will not allow any future actions to reveal we’re involved!”