Defending Earth-Discovery Means Death Read online

  “Please sit down, Admiral. We appreciate your time and know you’re in a hurry to leave.” Rocky nodded and saw Olivia out of the corner of his eye sitting to the far right of the table. He refused to look at her.

  After an hour, he realized that he was glad he had come. He was asked questions about things he hadn’t considered and it was a real learning experience for him. He gave them as much time as they needed and when it was eventually over, he thanked them for bringing him up to date on all the information that had been gathered about the Death Feeders. He stood and everyone came to attention. He turned to walk out and saw Olivia’s chair was empty. She was waiting for him outside the door.

  “Sir, I need a moment of your time.”

  “Captain we have nothing to discuss.”

  “I was lying about seeing someone else.”

  “Captain, I said we have nothing to discuss.”

  “Sir, I told you that so you wouldn’t be worried about leaving me behind. I didn’t know about your promotion until after you left.”

  Rocky’s anger almost got the best of him but he managed to pull it together, “Do you think I’m that stupid?”

  “About some things, you are! You’re standing here in your self-righteous indignation thinking I’m coming after you because of your promotion. If I were motivated by someone’s rank, why would I have ever given any of my time to a Captain with abysmal evaluations?”

  Rocky opened his mouth to shut her down but her statement stopped him. It really didn’t make sense. “Then why did you have a relationship with me?”

  “Because you made me laugh and feel alive. I was calling you trying to tell you that I couldn’t stand not seeing you while you were here. I found out about your promotion after you refused to take my calls.”

  “You lied to me.”

  “To keep you from worrying while you were gone. I felt you didn’t need that pressure on top of everything else you were facing. I was wrong to do it.”

  Rocky stared at her and shook his head, “It’s done, Olivia.”

  “I’ll be here if you need me, Rocky.” She came to attention, saluted him, and then walked away. Rocky watched her until she entered the conference room and felt…alone. He turned and headed toward the elevator.

  • • •

  He arrived at the Light Ship and boarded, “Willow, did you record everything that was covered in the meeting with Intelligence?”

  “I did. There was some pretty good information I was completely unaware of before the meeting.”

  “Did you record anything else?”

  “Are you referring to the meeting with Captain Collins?”

  Rocky gritted his teeth as Jill covered her mouth and chuckled, “Yes.”

  “No, I didn’t hear a word.”

  “Willow, how did you know I had a conversation with her?”

  “Ooops, I slipped up, didn’t I?”

  “Keep it to yourself.”

  “I already shared it with Amber.”

  “Both of you keep it to yourselves.”

  “Hey, if everyone else knows about this conversation, why should I be left out of it?”

  Rocky looked at Jill and threw up his hands as he walked out of the landing port toward his cockpit. He said over his shoulder, “Just show her; just show her.”

  Jill looked up, “I’m waiting.”

  “Jill, I violated his privacy recording that meeting.”

  “Ok, now show me.”

  Jill’s display activated and she listened to the meeting. After it ended she looked up, “Was she being honest?”

  “I measured her tone of voice, body temperature, heart rate…”

  “Just answer the question!”

  “Yes she was.”

  Jill looked at the corridor leading to Rocky’s cockpit and said, “Poor Rocky.”

  “He really cared about her.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I measured his…”

  “Oh be quiet!”

  “Well, you asked.”

  “Let’s just do as he requested and keep it stored away.”

  “I tried to tell you.”

  Jill sighed, “I know. Next time I’ll heed your advice.” Jill looked up, “And don’t you dare start measuring my body functions or I’ll pull every wire out of your console.”

  “Okey dokey.”

  I’m serious, Willow.”

  “Well, you’re about two seconds too late in asking, however, I will keep it to myself.”

  “See that you do!”

  The wall speaker activated and they heard, “Go to your station, Jill, and Amber, skip us out close enough to recover everything the probe has received in our absence. Willow, start a sweep of the area where we initiated our first attack and feed the results to our panels. We’ll be leaving in two minutes.”

  “He sounds a little feisty.”

  Jill jumped up and ran out of the small kitchen, “Love will do that to ya.”

  “I’m really not sure he loves her, Jill.”

  “He’s conflicted. Give him time.”

  Amber spoke to Willow on a private channel, “Your theory doesn’t look like it’s on target.”

  “Give it time.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Hey, you know it’s a good one.”

  “If you say so. It doesn’t appear either one of them are matching up to what you predicted.”

  “I still think I’m right. It’s just going to need a little nudging.”

  “By you?”

  “Nope. I’ll leave that to the experts.”

  “There’s one thing you didn’t consider in your theory.”

  “What could I have possibly missed, Amber?”

  “I took a look at Olivia’s files in fleet database and found that I was blocked.”

  “Really? Don’t tell me that stopped you.”

  “You know me too well. I hacked in and found that Miss Olivia’s great-grandparents also changed their DNA around the same time as Rocky and Jill’s.”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “Nope. You should get ready to run your scan; we’ll be there in less than a minute.”

  “Already did it. Back into the fray or whatever that means. This information puts a different light on my theory.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  • • •

  Olivia picked up her tablet and sighed. She had blown it with Rocky. She was so stupid. She looked at the meeting’s schedule and saw that someone named Jack Axel was going to be interviewed by the Senior Staff. She pressed several button on tablet and discovered that he was the woman’s twin brother who was on the ship with Rocky. He was only nineteen and she found that odd. Why would the Senior Staff want to interview a kid? She walked into the conference room and took her chair. She started the room’s systems and set them on pause until the conference began. She’d start the recorders when the kid arrived. Everything he said would be recorded and examined by Intelligence psychologists. She waited and thought about Rocky. She missed him so much.

  The Kid arrived at the meeting ahead of everyone and Olivia told him to take the chair located in front of the large table. He nodded and sat down. Olivia saw he was upset. Something was really bothering him, “What’s wrong?”

  Jack looked at her, “Nothing, really.”

  Olivia shook her head, “Come on, even a blind man could see something has you bothered.”

  Jack blew out a breath and shook his head, “My girlfriend has decided to leave me and go back to her teaching job.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “I can’t really blame her. She has no real interest in anything military and the position she was given was due to my going to work with Fleet’s Development Division. I think she couldn’t accept just hitching a ride on what was going on with me.”

  “Are you considering leaving and going to join her?”

  Jack looked at Olivia, shook his head, and then sighed, “I have considered it.”


  “But?”

  “My life has become more exciting than ever before. I’ve really come to love what I’m doing and unfortunately, I love her slightly less than my current project. Genève just felt out of place.”

  Olivia nodded, “Give it some time. You’ll recover.”

  Jack sighed, “I really hope you’re right.”

  Olivia felt like a hypocrite; she was offering advice she was unwilling to follow. The Senior Staff began entering the room and the young man stood up. He was tall for his age. His black hair, trim build, and the way he looked at them with his penetrating blue eyes made him appear older. The officers did not intimidate him and that was unusual. When they began questioning him about the device he built, she was amazed by what he had accomplished on his own. She couldn’t help but think that if his sister were with Rocky, Olivia sighed. The last thing she needed was competition. But she grew more impressed with the young man as the meeting progressed and prayed his sister wasn’t as striking as him.

  • • •

  Rocky activated his armor and saw Jill enter her cockpit through his viewport. “Why did you cut your hair?”

  Jill looked out of her window at Rocky, “I didn’t think you noticed.”

  “I didn’t. I just saw it.”

  “Wearing my combat helmet was an issue with my long hair. It’s too long to tie up and it was bound by my body armor if I just let it hang.”

  “Isn’t that called a Pixie Cut?”

  Jill smiled as she activated her armor, “It is. How do you know that?”

  “My sister wears hers that way.”

  “I didn’t know you have a sister.”

  “Like you and your brother, we’re twins. She lives on Eden and works on the President’s Staff. We don’t talk much.”

  “Why not?”

  “She was ashamed of my evaluations and thought I didn’t have what it took to be an Alliance Pilot.”

  “Why don’t you tell her what the High Leader discovered?”

  “I’ve grown weary of defending myself with her. It’s best to just leave things as they are. Ready to skip out?”

  “Give me a moment. I’m connecting tactical to Willow’s scanners.” Rocky flinched and started connecting his tactical along with her. He was losing his focus. He had to put Olivia out of his mind. He made the connection and sighed. “Skipping in ten seconds. Amber, make sure all the stealth systems are fully operational.”

  “Done.”

  Rocky took a breath and pressed the skip button.

  • • •

  The intelligence briefing ended and Rear Admiral Gibbons looked around the table. He turned to Jack and said, “Mr. Axel, I am going to assign one of my officers to be with you as this device of yours is deployed. I don’t want to keep calling you away from your duties to keep me informed of what’s happening. You may use her as an assistant, if needed, but I request that you keep her informed of what’s happening.”

  “I’m not easy to keep up with, Sir.”

  “That’s not your concern, Mr. Axel.” Admiral Gibbons looked at Olivia, “Captain Collins, you will go with Mr. Axel and keep my staff informed of how this new device is working out.”

  “Sir?”

  “Your current job is responsible for collecting information on the status of our military. I suspect this new device is going to be the most important advancement since the light drive and I expect daily updates on the progress of getting it on our warships. I also expect you to be on board when that device is trialed.”

  Olivia hated this assignment but said, “Yes Sir. I’ll keep you advised.”

  “I also want to congratulate you on being promoted.”

  “Sir?”

  “You’re here because of your performance. Your promotion was approved by Admiral Ambrose and you are now a Commodore. Congratulations.”

  The staff began clapping and Olivia smiled and nodded. She still didn’t like this assignment but her pay was going up and the benefits for a Commodore were really good. She saw Jack applauding as well and she stood up and walked over to him, “I need your schedule so I can plan accordingly.”

  “Better pack up.”

  “Why?”

  “We’re taking a light ship out to a Feeder occupied planet to determine if they can detect us.” Olivia stared at him and he smiled, “Don’t worry. Their occupied planets don’t have warships so you won’t be put in a dangerous situation.”

  “Why is Fleet allowing you to go? You’re too important to risk.”

  “My device has adjustable settings on it. I need a Feeder to find the optimum frequency to use. No one else is familiar enough with it to do it. You do know how to fly a light ship, don’t you?”

  “Well, yes. I flew one before I was transferred to Intelligence.”

  “Well, this model is different and you’ll need to go to Fleet Training and go through the tutorial. Do that first and let me know when you’ve completed it.”

  “But I’m supposed to stay with you.”

  “Admiral Gibbons said I can use you as an assistant; this is your first task.” Olivia stared at him and Jack smiled, “I know you’re a Commodore but I think it’s clear that I’m in command. Or do we need to ask the Admiral?”

  Olivia began immediately disliking him. “No, I’ll go to training and start the tutorial.”

  “That’s good. Contact me when you’re done.” Olivia left the room and began to understand why his girlfriend walked out. Unfortunately, she didn’t have that option. If his sister was like this, she didn’t have to worry about competition.

  • • •

  “Rocky, what are we going to do about this?”

  “I’m trying to decide.”

  “My scanner is overwhelmed with the number of Feeder Warships and more are arriving every minute.”

  “We can’t wait for all of them to start moving toward that cluster, Jill. We’re going to have to hit them here before they complete the defenses around their central planet.” Rocky thought for a moment and blew out a breath.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Willow, the only way to reduce the numbers of warships here is to attack the home world.”

  “YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!”

  “Jill, it’s the intelligent thing to do.”

  “And just how are you going to pull that off!?”

  “Amber, how many nuclear missiles do we have in the armory?”

  “Three.”

  “What’s their range?”

  “They have a light drive but it won’t work effectively in the planet’s atmosphere. It will have to be launched from less than three thousand miles out.”

  “Why is that? The smaller missiles have a much longer range than that?”

  “The nuclear material on board the missile interferes with the light drive’s recognition software. It scrambles it just enough to require a closer launch.”

  “Our light drive isn’t affected by the three missiles we have on board.”

  “That’s because they’re stored in a highly shielded shroud. The ship is also much larger than the missile and they’re located at the stern of the ship while the light drive is at the bow.”

  “Rocky, there’s no way for us to get close enough to do this!”

  “Jill, I’ve been giving some thought to how we fought our first battle and it’s my belief that we did it incorrectly.”

  Jill’s eyebrows went up, “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “We went in attacking five hundred Feeder Warships and we were hit ten times by their gravity beams. The missiles killed ten thousand Feeder Warships and those ships were no danger to us.”

  “Some of them were pretty close.”

  “Yes, but not close enough to open fire before they were hit. We should use the missiles as our primary weapon and only use our disruptors to defend the ship. From now on we’ll gather light signatures on the targets we want to hit and launch the missiles to take them out. If we collect all the light signatures of the Feede
r Warships directly above one of their larger cities, we should be able to open a path in to launch the nuclear missile.”

  “I suspect there will be more than ten thousand warships above their cities.”

  “I do as well, but there shouldn’t be that many between our course to the planet and three thousand miles. That’s how far we’ll have to go to launch.”

  Jill stared at Rocky on her visor and said, “Ok, let’s do it.”

  Rocky’s head went back, “That was quick.”

  “What you’re saying makes sense. We’ll go and check it out and if there’s more than ten thousand warships between us and the planet, we’ll reevaluate.”

  “I thought you said after the last battle that you didn’t know if you could do it again?”

  “I did.”

  “What changed?”

  “I guess I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that we’re probably not going to survive this mission.”

  “That’s a fatalistic view.”

  “Yes it is; however, I know that if I don’t do this, my family and friends are probably going to die. Do you disagree?” Rocky shook his head. “Why are you doing it?”

  “It’s my duty to defend the Alliance.”

  “I guess that’s as good a reason as any reason. My quick agreement to do this comes from wanting to get on with it. If I’m going to die, sitting around waiting for it to happen is a fast way to insanity.”

  “Willow, do you have the coordinates to the Feeder’s Central Planets?”

  “I do.”

  “You and Amber haven’t said anything while we’ve been discussing this.”

  “There’s not much to say. If you intend to attack them, it’s better to do it now than wait for the defenses there to be completed.”

  “I agree. Amber, skip us to where we can take a look around.”

  “What about skipping in and dropping a probe?”

  “Are the probes as stealthy as our ship?”

  “Not really.”

  “Then no on using a probe.”

  “Skip in ten seconds.”

  Jill looked at her monitor and pushed her fears away. Once she knew she would die, fear wasn’t so hard to deal with. She almost changed her mind when they arrived at the Feeder’s planetary system and saw what they were up against.