planet. They will do this for two reasons: one, to make sure that no one is left that could attack them from behind, and two, to make sure that we resist them in their occupation attempt on Earth. They want a reason to annihilate us. We might as well grant them their wish.”
“Why did you set up a blocking force? You’re using twice as many ships there as you are in the attack. Why not send all three hundred to overwhelm the Alliance fleet?”
“Because shortly our three hundred ships will be facing more than a thousand, and it’s important that they learn that we can successfully handle superior numbers. The Alliance can call up more than twenty-five thousand ships immediately. We have got to reduce that number in the early conflicts or we will be overwhelmed. We’ll use the blocking force in the attack if it becomes absolutely necessary, but if we can defeat those ships with half their number, then the veterans from this battle will send the message to the rest of our fleet that we are the best. That pride of conquest will be contagious. The blocking fleet will also be observing the battle and will learn from the experience. It is vitally important that no Alliance ship escapes to warn them of our capabilities. The blocking force must stop any escape attempt. At some point during the battle if we achieve numerical superiority the remaining Alliance ships will run. It’s up to the attacking force to run them into the blocking force or destroy them.”
“What if they surrender?”
Tag looked at Kosiev for a long moment and then said, “If they surrender we will transport them to a forty- mile-wide cavern we’ve carved on Europa. We’ve installed environmental systems, and there are provisions to feed them. They can govern themselves; we’re not going to waste personnel watching them. We’ll store their ships in another cavern on Callisto. Jupiter is inside the star drive limit so no one can approach without us knowing it. If this conflict ends peacefully, we will send the prisoners and their ships home.”
Kosiev said, “If they surrender, the entire crew should be made to leave their ship in lifeboats, and then their ships should be destroyed.”
“Why?” Tag asked.
“They could have self-destruct mechanisms with delayed timers. Or communication devices designed to be deployed after capture. We would endanger anyone charged with moving those ships.”
“Hold on just a minute,” Tag said. Then he commed Danielle and explained the discussion he and Kosiev had just had.
“He’s right, Tag,” Danielle said. “Do our ships have delayed self-destruct?”
“Yes.”
“So do theirs. Destroy the ships.”
“Thanks. Bye, love.”
“Bye.”
“Admiral, you will be receiving new directions from the director concerning how to handle any Alliance forces that surrender.”
“You value her opinion a lot,” Kosiev said. He was bothered that Tag had taken her opinion but not his.
“Admiral, she has a talent at putting unrelated facts together and coming to the truth. I’ll bet that if you call her back now that she’s had a minute to think about it, she’ll be able to tell you that even taking prisoners will be next to impossible, because their ships will be programmed to self-destruct before they can leave.”
“How could she know that?”
“It’s the way she said delayed, Admiral. She doesn’t think there will be much of a delay. Knowing the Cainth, she’s probably right.”
“I’m surprised that you don’t just destroy them outright after what they did to the hostages,” Kosiev commented.
“I considered that. But I’ve seen too many old history movies where I’ve seen the terrible things that we have done to each other. You have seen them too. Either we have grown and have learned from those experiences, or we’re no better than the ones we’re fighting. It’s wrong to kill someone who has decided to stop fighting.”
“I agree, sir,” Kosiev said.
“We leave in twenty hours. I’m making skid marks to see a lady with blue eyes while there’s time.”
“Skid marks?” Kosiev thought.
Chapter 27
W ashington and her four sister ships were leading a long line of one hundred warships. They were traveling single file toward the planet Ross to minimize the amount of mass that would be visible to the Alliance’s mass sensors. Tag was able to use his talents to maneuver the ships so that they fell into psychic shadows. He closed his eyes and saw that the only place not covered by one of the shadows was the artificial nose of the Melbourne, which was the lead ship. All the other ships followed in her shadow. He placed the sixty destroyers at the end of the long train of ships because of their small size. The bridge crew was looking at views of the Alliance fleet provided by Saratoga. The Cainth fleet was spread out evenly around the planet with the dreadnoughts evenly spaced around the equator.
“Do you think our little disguise might fool them?” Tag asked Kosiev.
“I’m not sure of their sensor capability. It should allow us to get somewhat closer than we would otherwise,” Kosiev said.
The Melbourne had left three days earlier than the other ships and made a stop in the Ort cloud that surrounds Earth’s solar system with millions of comets. An engineering team had selected one of the smaller comets that was 6,500 feet wide and hollowed it out to its core prior to the Melbourne’s arrival. The Melbourne, commanded by Captain Alverez, who was Kosievs’ former weapons officer, had then moved into that hollow and began to slowly accelerate to its jump point. It was not easily done, but the power of its drives took it out of orbit, and with its comet nose piece, the ship started picking up speed. The Melbourne had used a traditional force field to keep the comet from coming into contact with its hull and used the Coronado screen to enclose both of them to safely make the jump to the assembly coordinates. It waited there for the other ships. Once the other ships arrived, Tag lined them up, and then they jumped to the Ross system. The long train of ships accelerated and used the sun’s gravity well to slingshot them toward the planet. They had been traveling using only minimal environmental power for sixteen hours. “They should be tracking us by now,” Kosiev said. “That comet nose piece is hot from our passage by the sun and is leaving a vapor trail.”
“I’ve noticed that,” Tag said. “It actually helps mask our ships and might buy us more time. If they are tracking us, they haven’t started changing their fleet positions yet, according to Saratoga.”
“Excuse me sir,” Lieutenant Kelley said. “The Saratoga reports that the Alliance transport ships are evacuating their troops from the planet. It appears that they might be anticipating an asteroid strike on the surface. You would think that they would come out and destroy it before it impacts the planet.”
“They won’t do that,” Tag said. “This is a golden opportunity that the Cainth won’t pass up. Now they won’t have to execute the population and be blamed for an atrocity. They’ll let the comet impact do the work for them.”
“It appears you’re right, sir. The ships located on its line of approach are moving to new locations.”
“That’s the hole we need to drop our transports through,” Kosiev said. “We won’t even have to fight our way in.”
Sub-admiral Ecsra looked at his sensor officer and said, “Why didn’t you see this coming long before now?”
“Sir, it came in from the other side of the sun and is so small that it just entered our sensor range. It is coming on a line from the sun and was evidently catapulted on a path that will have it impact the planet. It’s moving at a very high velocity, and when it hits it’s going to destroy most of the life on the surface.”
“What’s its composition?”
“An outer layer of ice but a core of metal and rock, and at the speed its traveling it won’t have a chance to burn up in the atmosphere. It might even penetrate to the planet’s core and split the planet.”
“Contact Admiral Dorg and fill him in and ask for instructions.”
It took half a drag for the admiral to be contacted, and then he appeared on the communication screen. “It appears that if we let the asteroid impact, then our work here will be over.”
