have to have someone that we all can trust to look out for the welfare of everyone equally; someone that will see the truth in every situation. You are the perfect choice. If it doesn’t work, then abdicate after some time has passed and our races have become more comfortable with each other. Until then you must accept this decision. You are also going to need someone to help you schedule your time. You better start thinking about that now.”
I already know who I want for that slot.”
“Who?” tag asked.
“Leila McAnn is perfect for those responsibilities. I’ve already asked the Director to reassign her to my staff. Eric is also going to have a post in my staff. I won’t separate them.”
“Good choice, Darling. Now I have some news you’re not going to like.”
“What?” she said quickly.
“You can’t go with me on the ship to the battle.”
You’re out of your mind if you think I’ll let you go alone. Sung Lea says it’s critical.”
“Darling, the possible futures changed when you were made Queen. Sung Lea commed me a message that says the new relationships will fail if you go. How would you feel if you just promised loyalty to a queen and she then goes into the middle of a space battle? You now have a responsibility to three races that outweigh your own wishes.”
Danielle started to protest but then stopped. Her ability to see the truth allowed her to see the wisdom of what he was saying. “Atlas.” She said.
“Yes Your Majesty,” He answered.
“Not you, too,” she said. “Will you promise to protect my husband?”
“I’ll do my best Danielle. Congratulations on your promotion. I guess that makes your child the crown prince, right?”
“I don’t know, Atlas. We haven’t discussed any form of succession.” Then her eyes got big and she jumped straight up and said, “What do you mean my child!”
“I thought you knew; you’re expecting a child in about 8 months.”
Tag stood there speechless. She looked at him and rushed into his arms tears pouring from her eyes and said, “He’ll be our crown prince. I love you, Tag.”
Tag just stood there dazed and held his wife close and swore they were going to win this war. His child was going to have a future no matter who had to pay the price.
Kosiev sat on the Washington’s bridge looking at the feed from Alliance Central. Tag walked in eating a bag of popcorn and humming. “I’m glad someone’s happy,” Kosiev said.
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“I’m afraid that the Alliance may be forming up at another location. It’s been two weeks since the last battle and there are not a large number of ships in the system.”
Tag looked at the feed and asked, “What are all those dreadnaughts doing around the planet?”
Kosiev said, “I’ve noticed them and they appear to be in the process of being refitted or something.”
“Refitted for what? How many are there?”
Kosiev looked at the sensor readout and said, “Around 800 or so.”
“Can you get a closer view?”
Kosiev turned a dial and one of the dreadnaughts filled the screen. Tag said, “It looks like they are removing the weapons from the surface. Can you rewind the feed?”
Kosiev turned another dial and they watched as missiles were off loaded from the dreadnaught. “Go back and find one of the dreadnaughts that have left and let’s see what they did after the weapons were removed.” Kosiev turned the dial and found one of the dreadnaughts moving away from the planet to a parking area away from the shipping lanes. He then came in close and rewound the feed until the ship was back in the docks and the weapons removed. Then he started the feed at 10 times normal speed and they watched as machinery was installed in the dreadnaught. “What do you think that is?” Tag asked.
“I don’t know. Whatever it is, it doesn’t look like a weapon.”
“Send a copy of this to our engineers and see if they can figure it out,” Tag said. “There are 800 of them being fitted for this and I’ve got to believe it’s not a good thing.”
Five days later Kosiev commed Tag and asked him to come see him aboard the Washington. Tag arrived and said, “What’s up?”
“Our engineers have looked at the machinery going on those dreadnaughts and it’s their opinion that its purpose is to drain the screen around the Planet. I asked them if it would work and they didn’t know but agreed that the Alliance would not be building it if they thought it wouldn’t. They did say, however, that the ships used to drain the screen would have to be outside the range of the asteroids beams. That means at least 800 miles out. They also are of the opinion that the Alliance has no idea just how much energy those forts have stored.”
“What’s the significance of that?” Tag asked.
“Well, to coin a phrase, think about it.” Tag smiled at that. “They design a system to drain a screen that they think is a normal storage system. As you know, one those nine foot power cells can store enough power to run the entire planet for five days. Each one of those forts has more than 25,000 on each. The screen right now is at its full charge level of 110 feet. Our engineers think they can drain power indefinitely and the sun will replace it as fast as they drain it.”
“How can we use this to our advantage?” Tag asked.
Kosiev thought for a few minutes and said, “If their fleet is going to come to the planet, can we decoy them in closer?”
“Can the forts vary the amount of power going into the screen?”
Kosiev thought a minute and said, “Let’s get Colonel Taz on the line and ask; communications, open a channel to the main fort and get Colonel Taz.”
While they waited Tag asked, “What do you have in mind?”
“Well I was thinking,” and Ensign Kelly interrupted him saying, “Colonel Taz is on the com, Admiral.”
Kosiev and Tag looked at the com screen and Kosiev said, “Colonel Taz, do you have a moment to discuss your forts?”
“Certainly Admiral, what do you need to know?”
“Can your forts control the amount of power in the screen?”
“That is something we can do but what would you do with that capability?”
Kosiev then filled him in on what he suspected the Alliance was going to Attempt. “I was thinking that if we could convince the Alliance that their ships were draining our screen, they might move in closer.”
“Admiral, you know that most of the time the screen is not even employed. We allow direct sunlight in to the planet. Usually when we turn the screen on we just turn it on at full power.”
“Colonel Taz, do you have a record of how thick the screen was at the end of the last battle?” Tag asked. Colonel Taz looked away from the screen and manipulated his console and requested one of his aides to send the information to his console.
“Admiral, it was 67 feet thick at the conclusion of the last battle. Its maximum thickness was over 100 feet during the energy bombardment. We had to use some of our storage to fire our beams last time but now the weapons cells are fully charged and we should be able to fire them constantly for 10 hours and not have to draw on the screens power reserve.”
“Could you maybe start the screen at 75 feet and as they start to drain the power reduce the thickness rapidly to maybe, Colonel, how thick would it have to be to stop missiles and beams?”
“Actually, missiles would be exploded at 2 foot thickness and energy weapons would still be absorbed into the power grid.”
“Could a window be opened in the screen over places where an energy strike would do no damage?” Tag looked at Kosiev with a gleam in his eye. “And could you fire a greatly attenuated beam that would have little power?”
“Sure, what do you have in mind?”
“Think about it,” and Tag winked at Kosiev. “If they are draining the screen and you fire your beams at them with maximum power at first and then as you shrink the screen you lower the intensity of the beams, it would look like your system is about to fail. Maybe when the screen gets down to two feet thick, you turn it on and off over various sections of the planet and then you quit firing your beams all together. If they move in closer to penetrate
