The Forbidden Wilds: Crossing the Styx Read online

  “And just how are we going to do that, Alex?”

  “We’re going to play the role of an Invader warship, Jingle.”

  “That’s not possible! Our ships are nowhere near the size of the freighter we used to convince the aliens they were under attack.”

  “Jingle, the aliens never detected the freighter, they only detected its wake.”

  “Alex, get real! We can’t duplicate that freighter’s wake!”

  “How do you make a large wake, Jingle?”

  Jingle thought about it and replied, “You move a large ship through the dust in the nebula.”

  “And if you move the large ship at a high-speed, what happens?”

  Jingle shrugged, “It gets larger.”

  “That’s one side of the equation, Jingle. The other side is what happens when a smaller ship travels through the dust at extreme velocity?” Jingle blinked. “The small ship can leave just as large a wake as a much larger ship. That’s what we’re going to do.”

  “But…” Jingle started.

  “Jingle, our force fields are powered by four of the Union’s newest and most powerful reactors! We can travel through the dust at extreme velocity and you better believe we’re going to leave an impressive wake.”

  “What are you trying to accomplish, Alex?”

  “Those alien warships that launched the missiles are still holding position just inside the nebula. They’re gathering to attack our fleets when they form back up. We’re going to hit them hard and force them to call off the attack.” Jingle stared at Alex on the monitor and Alex added, “Jangle, are you capable of sticking close to the Rapids?”

  “How close are you talking about?”

  “I want you to place your bow missile box right above Brook’s thrusters and keep it there while we maneuver at high speed.”

  “Oh, is that all?”

  “Can you do it!?”

  “As long as Brooks doesn’t make a radical change in direction, I can hang close.”

  “Alex, if you have our ships that close to each other, their force fields will overlap. What happens if the aliens fire some of those new missiles at us? There’s no way Brooks and Jangle can change the frequency of their force fields to match!”

  “It won’t be that hard, Jingle,” Jangle interrupted.

  “Is that so?”

  “Brooks and I are tightly linked, and I’ll know instantly what frequency he’s going to use, and I’ll match it.”

  “Why do we have to fly so close together?” Jingle asked.

  “We must convince the aliens that we’re an invader’s warship. Our new hulls are radically different from any Union Warship; they’re larger and the bow and sterns have missile boxes the standard Union warship doesn’t. By flying together, we’ll make them believe we’re more than three times the size of the Union’s ships.”

  “Alex, why would our attacking them make them call off the attack?”

  “Jingle, I don’t have time to explain it! We’re behind their lines and we’re launching our attack as soon as Jangle moves into position.” Alex paused and said, “Don’t Admiral Thorton me!”

  “Jangle, move in behind the Rapids,” Jingle ordered.

  Jangle moved in and pushed up against the Rapids’ stern. “Brooks, I’m linked to your panel and I’ll follow your inputs to the gravity drive.”

  “I’ll try to keep it simple, Jangle.”

  “Do what you need to do to keep our pilot’s safe, Brooks.”

  “You can count on that.”

  Alex spoke up, “All right, we’re behind the line of their warships and we’re going to maximum speed and fire at them with our blasters as we pass.”

  “Are we going to use the new missiles?” Jingle asked.

  “Only if we must to survive. Jingle, you take the top row and I’ll hit the bottom!”

  “What do you mean by top row?”

  “You’ll see! In three-two-one-Go!”

  “Holy Mother of Pearl!!” Jingle exclaimed as Alex flew the ships in between two long lines of alien warships holding position just inside the edge of the Styx Nebula. They moved in at high speed and began running down the long line of warships.

  The alien warships were keeping a hundred miles separation from the ships next to them, but they were moving so fast that Jingle had to fire at an approaching ship and hold the blaster on it while she targeted the next ship with the second blaster. The aliens detected the giant wake moving in on them from behind their lines, but it was moving too fast for them to turn and open fire on it. It was traveling behind their thrusters and caught the aliens completely off guard.

  • • •

  The new blasters powered by the new reactors punched through the alien’s force fields and hit their thrusters with a powerful punch. Seventy alien warships went up in massive explosions before Brooks announced, “The warships in front of us are coming about and bringing their blasters to bear. The lines above and below the line we’re attacking are moving out of formation to cut us off!”

  “Turn around Brooks and take us out of the nebula between the warships we’ve destroyed!” Alex ordered.

  “THEY’VE LAUNCHED MISSILES!” Jingle shouted.

  “They’re coming in from outside the warships we hit!” Alex quickly replied. “We’ll make it through the destroyed warships and out of the Nebula before they arrive!” Alex immediately ordered, “Brooks, drop a stealth probe now! Jingle, we’re going to maximum speed; I want to leave a huge wake behind us as we move through those warships!!”

  Jingle shrugged; she wasn’t flying the ship, Jangle was. She looked at the rear scanner’s monitor and saw a giant wake behind them. Alex was right, it was at least as large as the one the freighter left more than two years ago.

  • • •

  The Senior watched warships blowing up in his forces and immediately shouted, “THE NEXT ATTACK IS CANCELED!! HOLD YOUR POSITIONS!! DON’T ALLOW THAT SHIP TO ESCAPE!!”

  The Senior stared at his monitor and watched as the vessel attacking his forces turn and moved out of the cluster through the ranks of the destroyed warships. The wake that vessel was leaving behind was gigantic!

  The Junior looked up, “That ship has exited the edge of the cluster and has flown through the Union’s lines before they could reform!”

  Seniors began connecting and demanded to know why the next attack was canceled. The Senior turned to the Junior, “Send all Seniors the recording of that ship’s attack!” The Junior immediately began pressing buttons on his panel.

  The Seniors stopped yelling and watched the recording sent to them. There was silence for a minute or more and then a high ranking Senior asked, “What happened here?”

  “We made a foolish mistake,” the Senior that sent the recording responded.

  “Explain!”

  “We assumed the Invaders had left the galaxy and were no longer an issue. Please notice in the recording that the ship that attacked our vessels could not be seen but its blasters were detected. It was obviously a stealth ship and it wasn’t a Union Warship.”

  “Do you have proof of that?” another high-ranking Senior asked.

  “The Union warships are less than a third of the size of that ship, based on the distance between the blasters it was firing. It has ten blasters and the standard Union warship only has four. The power of that vessel’s blasters is far beyond anything the Union has used. It was also moving at a speed a Union warship is unable to match. This had to be one of the Invader’s warships.”

  “Don’t you find it suspicious that it chose to attack just when we attacked the Union Fleets?”

  “No, Senior, it makes perfect sense.”

  “Explain!”

  “It attacked when it did because the Union fleets were out of position and their lines were broken apart. I believe that the Union ships can detect another stealth ship and they’ve prevented the Invaders from attacking our territory.”

  The Senior’s statement was greeted with silence. The Senior
paused and then continued, “It was like we suspected, the Union forces around us are preventing the Invaders from attacking us. That is why I canceled the next attack. If we remove the Union fleets, we open ourselves to more attacks from the Invaders.”

  The highest-ranking Senior, who had remained silent, spoke up, “The evidence supports your statements. We will hold off attacking the Union’s fleets until we come up with an answer to the ship in this recording.”

  “I believe that once the Union forces reform their lines, we will not be attacked further,” The Senior responded.

  “If that ship is so powerful, why doesn’t it attack the Union’s warships?” Another Senior asked.

  “For the same reason we’ve not attacked them,” the Senior responded. “The Union warships are less powerful than our ships but there are hundreds of thousands of them. They could overwhelm a single Invader warship.”

  • • •

  Jingle listened to the conversation being intercepted by the stealth probe and looked at Alex on the monitor, “This is what you expected to happen by attacking them?”

  “It is Jingle. Fortunately, everything worked out perfectly to make it appear real. If we didn’t attack before the fleets moved back into their positions, it wouldn’t have worked. I’m sorry I didn’t take the time to explain.”

  Jingle smiled, “I said you were the combat expert. In the future, I’ll just shut up and follow your orders.”

  “Jingle, I can’t give you orders. You outrank me.”

  “I told you before we arrived that we will work together like we have in the past. You can give me orders and I will follow them! I will tell you any concerns I have, and we’ll work together to resolve them. Thank you for making this happen. You probably saved numerous lives with your actions.”

  Alex smiled, “Let’s see what else the aliens have to say.”

  Jingle nodded and heard, “Yes Senior, we scanned some of the Union Warships that were destroyed.”

  “I want you to send those scans to the scientists working on duplicating the Union’s hiding field. We recovered one of the emitters from the wreckage of the last ship we destroyed but haven’t been able to find the frequency it uses…”

  “Brooks! Move back into the edge of the nebula close to that warship currently communicating with that alien leader! Move now!!” Alex ordered.

  The Rapids instantly disappeared at high speed and flew back into the nebula. It slowed as it entered the dust not leaving a wake behind it. Jingle heard the alien fleet commander reply, “I’m collecting all the data and preparing to send it momentarily.”

  Chapter Five

  Jingle suddenly realized that the new missiles the aliens launched were using explosive warheads instead of a disruptor beam; they had what they wanted to duplicate the stealth field. Her heart started beating faster, “Alex!”

  “Standby, Jingle. I’ll get back to you.” Jingle’s eyes narrowed but then she knew he had a reason for not communicating. What was he doing? She thought about it and then figured it out; he was getting a communication line to the planet working on the stealth field. Her heart beat faster; if he managed to get that line, what was he going to do with it?

  • • •

  An hour later, Alex exited the nebula and flew back to the Clapper’s location. He linked with Jingle using his direct link to Brooks, “I managed to get the line of communication that alien fleet commander used to send the data. I was very fortunate that some of the data arrived late and he waited until all of it was in before sending it.”

  “What’s bothering you, Alex?”

  Alex took a deep breath, “That communication line went toward the center of the nebula. The alien planet working on the stealth field must be located in the center of the Styx Nebula.”

  “Why does that bother you?”

  “Jingle, that planet must be attacked and soon.” Jingle’s brow furrowed and she stared at Alex in silence. “I’m going to have to go in and attempt to destroy the alien facility working on it.”

  “I will not allow you to go in alone, Alex.”

  “You’re too pretty to die.”

  “And you’re too young to die, Alex!”

  “It’s got to be done, Jingle, and the only ships that can possibly pull it off are the ones we’re on now.”

  Jingle stared at Alex and replied after a moment, “Jangle tells me that the stealth field won’t work on the alien’s warships. They’re limited on how much surface they can cover, and the alien’s ships are too large for it to function.”

  “He’s right about that.”

  “Then why must this be done?”

  Alex stared at her and then shook his head slightly, “Jingle, have you considered the impact of their new missiles if they have a stealth field? You know that all of our missiles have stealth fields.” Jingle’s head fell back, and Alex continued, “The only defense against them currently is that they can be detected and defeated. If we can’t see them, every warship in the Union is in jeopardy.” Jingle’s head lowered as Alex said, “There’s more, Jingle.”

  “What more could there possibly be? This is bad enough!”

  “You know I dropped a stealth probe before we left the nebula, right?” Jingle nodded. Alex pressed a button on his panel and Jingle saw a recording of a vast field of debris and destroyed alien warships. The view moved around, and Alex stopped it.

  Jingle stared at the image and her eyes narrowed as she squinted at the monitor, “What is that small light?”

  “It’s a stealth probe, Jingle.”

  “I thought you only dropped one probe.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Well, if you didn’t drop it, who did?”

  “You can eliminate all the planets in the Wilds, they don’t have stealth technology. You can also eliminate the aliens as well for the same reason. We didn’t put it there, so you can also eliminate the Union,” Alex answered. Jingle stared at Alex in silence and he added, “That probe doesn’t use the same energy as our probes. Our stealth probe’s scanning system allows it to scan through its stealth field, and it appears it also allowed the probe to see through that other probe’s stealth field.”

  “Alex, you’re starting to scare me.”

  “There’s more. When the alien fleet commander sent the data, that probe immediately flew away at high speed. Brooks says that it was headed in the general direction of that communication. It’s almost a certainty that it was headed toward the planet where the aliens are developing a stealth field. That reveals two things, Jingle; they have deciphered the alien’s language and that probe is more advanced than any probe used by the Union.”

  “Someone other than the Union is scouting the nebula,” Jingle replied.

  “How do we know that they’re only scouting the nebula, Jingle?” Jingle started shaking her head and Alex continued, “It’s clear that the probe in question did not detect our stealth probe; it never moved to avoid it. I’ve sent this information to Admiral Glennon on an encrypted channel and he is going to check it out. However, this makes it a whole new ball game.”

  “So, what happens now?”

  “Admiral Glennon agrees that the alien planet must be attacked. The entire Union Navy is at risk.” Jingle nodded slightly and Alex shrugged, “If we go in, we will not be coming out on the same route, Jingle. There will be too many alien warships chasing us.”

  “What are you saying, Alex?”

  “Jingle, we’re going to have to cross the Styx.”

  • • •

  It took Alex two hours to make sure Admiral Thorton understood what was going on. At the end, Thorton responded, “I’ll move the older model of warships to the coordinates you’ve given me and be prepared to move them to a new coordinate instantly.”

  “How many were you able to find?”

  “Fifty-four, Admiral Berringer.”

  Alex nodded, “That should be enough. I do have one request, Admiral.”

  “What is that?”

&nbs
p; “If possible, I want all the computers on those ships removed prior to our arrival.”

  Thorton’s eyes narrowed, “Why would you want that?”

  “Are the computers in those ships the newest model?”

  “Yes.”

  “Those computers have been operating out here and would give any new pilot they imprint with a leg up on knowing what’s going on. They should be taken back to the Union and installed in a new ship being built. Not only are they expensive to build but they can help keep their pilots alive.”

  “That makes good sense, Admiral Berringer. I’ll make it happen.”

  “Thank you, Admiral. We’ll be leaving shortly.”

  “Good luck and stay safe.” Alex smiled and ended the contact.

  “Why did you want the computers removed, Alex?” Jangle asked.

  “For the reason I stated, Jangle.”

  “It doesn’t have to do with your relationship with Brooks?”

  Alex stared at the monitor and Jingle asked, “Does it?”

  Brooks entered the conversation, “It does! I can see it in his mind.”

  “I will not allow a computer to be deliberately destroyed. Especially one that’s experienced and imprinted with a pilot,” Alex said tersely. “The pilots imprinted to those computers will go back to the union with them where they’ll continue to serve together on a new warship.”

  Everyone was silent after the exchange until Jangle broke the silence, “Admiral Berringer, you have grown immensely in stature in my opinion. Thank you for your kindness to those machines.”

  Alex sighed then announced, “It’s time to do this. Jingle are you alright? Are you frightened by having to do this?”

  “Alex, no matter what change the night brings, I won’t be afraid if we do it together.”

  Alex stared at her and then said, “We’re going back in the nebula where those alien warships were destroyed.”

  “Isn’t there a lot of activity around those ships, Alex?”

  “No, Jingle. It appears they didn’t even look to see if there were any survivors; they left them to die. They decided moving through the debris field was too large of a risk and other ships might be damaged. With the destruction of the billion aliens making up their detection grid, now is the optimum time to get into the nebula. The probe shows we can enter there without being detected entering the dust. Once we’re through, we’ll move away at slow speed avoiding detection and move as far into the nebula as possible before going to maximum speed.”