The Legend of Earth

lights away. All the other Council members had now gathered around the monitor. They were no longer drinking and cavorting.

“Jonnif, tell me he is still on Juir, and that’s just a matter of you locating him.”

“I’m afraid I cannot, my Ludif. He and the others commandeered a starship last night and escaped the planet. We have been unable to locate him as of this time.”

Daninf was silent for another long moment, while several of the other Council members began to shout questions and comments at both Jonnif and the Langril. Finally Daninf raised his hand.

“Silence all of you! Jonnif, does he have the capability of contacting his planet?”

“Not with the vessel he acquired — yet he can contact his fleet.”

Jonnif saw Daninf turn a ghostly white as the blood drained from his head. When Daninf spoke again each word was like a dagger. “Need I remind you, Jonnif, just how damaging this action could be if he does make contact. It was upon your recommendation that the Kracori made the current move upon Juir. If there had been any possibility of the Human fleet arriving in the Alliance Cluster, we would have delayed our assault until we further assessed the Humans’ intentions. This diversion attack on Earth was the deciding factor in favor of the invasion. Without the strong possibility of the Humans breaking off their arrival at Juir, the Council would have never agreed to the invasion.”

“Is there a possibility of moving up the attack on Earth? If we attack now, then what Adam Cain can or can’t do will have no relevance.”

“The strike force is on final approach to Earth and are under communications lockdown. We will attempt, but it is something we cannot rely on.”

Daninf seemed to gather his thoughts, even though Jonnif could see a slight trembling of his head every time he moved. “Jonnif, you realize that to have first taken Juir, and then be forced to retreat, will result in even a greater loss of legend than if we never attempted the invasion in the first place? There is no shame in waiting for the most opportune time to strike a target. Yet you knew the Human fleet was coming, and you still insisted on carrying out this plan, even knowing the risks. If the Kracori are forced to retreat, we may never fully recover from the humiliation, and after only recently revealing ourselves to the Expansion. We have no established legend with them, something that might be able to withstand such devastation. Only eradicating the Humans from the galaxy would ever salvage the Kracori legend — if even then — and we are in no position to attempt such a feat at this time if the attack upon Earth fails.”

“My Ludif, the attack may still be successful. We are assuming that Adam Cain can contact his fleet, and then that the forces on Earth can stop the strike. All that we speak of here may not come to be. We can still prevail.”

Daninf looked from side to side at the other Council members, each nodding in silent agreement. “Jonnif, we will await the final outcome of the attack on Earth; we do not wish to disrupt the command structure within your forces at this time. However, no matter the final outcome of the attack, you will be relieved of your command and recalled to Eilsion. If the attack is a success, you will be allowed to retire to a non- strategic life with no loss of public legend. If it fails, then unfortunately you will be made the face of this failure and your legend will be destroyed as probably none have before it.”

“My Ludif, and other Council members, I fully accept my fate. I would expect nothing less. My first error may have been forgiven had I maintained control of Adam Cain. Compounding my first with my second error — in allowing him to escape — is inexcusable.”

“Excuses are one thing, Jonnif, as are apologies. Catastrophes are another. We must all hope now that the attack on Earth succeeds. If it doesn’t, it is not only your legend which will be destroyed, but also that of the entire Kracori.”

Chapter 25

For Petty Officer First Class (RM1) Caleb Cobb, the thrill of space travel had lost its luster about nine months ago. Unlike all the wild fantasies about space travel that had danced through his head prior to volunteering for the Human Revenge Fleet, Caleb had yet to see any extraterrestrials in the flesh or set foot upon a single exotic alien world. Instead he’d spent the past year cloistered aboard only one starship, the Bunker Hill, the command ship of the fleet. Although the accommodations aboard the craft were better than any he’d ever experienced during his sixteen years in the U.S. Navy, after all this time Caleb Cobb was going stir- crazy. And they still had a very long, open-ended mission ahead of them.

His only diversion came from the fact that he was one of the many bachelors aboard the ship, which also carried its fair share of single female crewmembers, and these women were just as restless as he. In addition, crews from the smaller KFV’s would constantly rotate through the much larger KFV-D, placing their ships within the massive landing bay for week-long stays at a time. This added to the variety of people Caleb met, but by now he’d already scoped out most of the decent possibilities, so even this activity was growing monotonous.

Although Caleb Cobb was never lonely, he was still bored beyond belief.

During the nearly year-long deployment, Caleb had not even seen any real fighting action, except for the brief battle off Falor-Kapel. Of the fifteen hundred ships of the fleet only the KFV-A’s and B’s had seen most of action — and that had only come in brief spurts weeks apart.

Caleb did his best to rationalize the situation, realizing that even if the crews could be granted liberty somewhere, it would be on an alien world completely new to Humanity. Without extensive and time-consuming surveys, covering the full range of scientific, medical and security considerations, no landfall would be coming anytime soon.

Except maybe on Juir.

Caleb knew the capital planet of the Juirean Expansion was their final destination, and even then they were still almost three months out, and once arriving in an area called the Alliance Cluster, they would undoubtedly encounter the most ferocious battle to date. Landing upon the surface of Juir after such a battle would hardly be considered liberty.

Still, at this point Caleb Cobb would welcome any chance to step upon a surface of something other than metal.

And now these cryptic and confusing reports had begun to filter in from all around them. Caleb was a Radioman, specifically a Broadcast Operator aboard the flagship. It was his job to log all incoming and outgoing communications for the fleet. With the arrival of the Klin and all their advanced comm technology, nearly everything he had learned during his Navy career had gone out the window. Now he dealt with links and wormhole relays and transit times. He hadn’t had time to learn how all this new technology worked before they deployed; all he knew for sure was that it did.

His position aboard the flagship also gave him a unique insight into the thinking of the top brass, both here and back on Earth. He saw nearly every message exchanged between the two locations and so had a fairly good feel for how things were going.

The fleet had left Falor-Kapel and entered a major deep-well transit route that the Klin spies — the Saviors — had provided them. Once the Saviors had been revealed for what they really were, many of them had been given a choice: life in prison for espionage, or join the Fleet and provide all assistance possible. Many of the off-world-born Humans had quickly converted. Caleb knew two of these men — now called Second-Generation Humans or simply 2G’s. They were really nice guys, yet very desperate to be accepted by their heretical brothers and sisters.

Command had gone out of their way to explain who the 2G’s were and how they had been born and raised off-planet, while constantly being fed propaganda about the native Humans by the Klin. The transition went smooth enough for most; what conflicts there were usually came from a small minority of the native Human population of the fleet toward the 2G’s, rather than the other way around.

The route they followed to Juir took them just above the galactic plane and into an area deemed optimal for