Sten turned on the general channel and said, “I have just spoken with your fleet commander and told him that I see no way you can prevail against the number of ships coming to attack us. I think you should leave and save yourselves.”
Silence dominated the channel for more than ten dregs but no ships left. Finally a voice said, “I’m the commander of one of the ships that came here because I refused to attack the Humans again. They gave me my life back when they chose not to destroy my ship. I learned that day that I could no longer support a government that arbitrarily destroyed civilizations at their whim. I think you’re right, State Leader. We will probably lose, but if I can reduce the strength of the ones that make those outrageous choices then my life will have been worthwhile. I choose not to leave.” Suddenly the com was filled with voices yelling their refusal to run. Sten felt a pride rise up in him and his voice joined theirs. Even Dgzh was shouting. Finally, Sten said to Dgzh, “It’s been a great pleasure working with you. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you, but I value your insights. I just wanted to tell you before I no longer had the chance.”
Dgzh looked at Sten and Sten said, “Uh, oh. You have that look again. Are you not telling me something?”
Dgzh smiled and said, “You haven’t asked me about my trip to the Glods home world. I had an opportunity to get to know their new queen; she’s Human by the way. One thing I learned there; it’s actually a Human expression, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” I think that describes our situation perfectly here.”
Sten watched his friend closely and then looked at his display showing the two Alliance fleets moving toward each other. Finally he smiled and said, “Those Humans; they’re always full of surprises aren’t they?”
Dgzh actually laughed at how quick Sten had figured it out, “You have no idea State Leader.”
“Admiral, I think they’ve gone far enough in system, don’t you?” Tag said while watching his monitor.
“Yes Mr. Gardner, would you be so kind as to let them know what’s about to take place.” Kosiev said.
“My pleasure, Admiral.” Tag then nodded to his communications officer and received confirmation that his channel was open to the entire Alliance of worlds. “Good day to everyone in the Alliance, this communication is being broadcast to every receiver among the eight hundred plus members. I want to make sure there are no misunderstandings. First, I’m telling the commander of the Fleet that is currently moving toward the Central Alliance World to stop his fleet and turn around. We know you have actually gathered this fleet to attack my home world and we warned you that we will destroy the next fleet put together for that purpose. We will give you a chance to withdraw because we prefer to avoid unnecessary death but you have five of your dregs to comply; after that we will destroy any of your ships continuing toward the planet. Second, we believe that some of the Alliance members will use this opportunity to attack some of their fellow members. I would caution you to think long and hard before you do that. I have stationed 16 of our warships at the jump limit of every member of the Alliance. If any of you move to attack another member, we will destroy as many of the attacking ships as possible and the ships in the attacking members system will take action against the one that initiates the action. Check your sensors, those ships are in your system as we speak. Our brothers from the Glod Union and the Cainth Empire are participating in this exercise and will do whatever it takes to prevent loss of life. We don’t know what will happen after this fleet action, but for the moment, we will not allow any of you to bombard another’s planet.”
Harauik interrupted Tag’s communication by saying, “We’ve just totaled the number of ships you had to use to send sixteen to all our members. Just what do you think you’re going to use to stop my fleet?”
“I trust the feed from this is being shown to all the members.” Tag said.
Sten commed, “It is; some of our members have never seen your ships in action; neither has the Commander of the fleet attacking us. Whatever happens, we should all be witness to what happens here today.”
“To answer your question Commander, the ships that will stop you will be in front of your fleet right about….now.”
Five thousand miles in front of the Alliance fleet 621 Human battleships appeared. Each was 1,400 feet long and glowed brilliantly white against the darkness of space. They were spread evenly across the width of the Hargon fleet. The Human ships still looked small against the 3,600 foot dreadnaughts and Harauik laughed over the Communicator, “You think you can stop us with those? We’ll destroy you and then your species.”
Everyone in the Alliance watched the Human look at the Hargon Leader and shake his head sadly. “I still don’t want to kill those crews that have been intimidated into this action. If any of you turn and leave the system, we will not destroy your ship. Turn, move out of the combat zone. Turn off your screens, and we will allow you to go home. Anyone else will be dealt with. You have ten sems to stop.”
Billions watched what was happening. All of them wondered, how can so few ships stop the twenty nine thousand ships that composed the juggernaut of the Hargon fleet; it just wasn’t possible. The last thing the Human said on the screen was, “Time’s up.”
Sten and everyone else in the Alliance watched as the 621 Human ships disappeared and then reappeared in the middle of the Hargon Fleet. Each of those white ships blasted every ship within forty miles of its hull into dust. The 1,400 foot wide primary beam killed ten ships with one shot. Hundreds of the small compressed beams went out and struck ships that were within eighty miles of its hull. Once the area around the Human ship was cleared, the ship would disappear and then reappear in another part of the fleet.
Tag sat aboard the Atlanta and watched Captain Smith fight his ship. “Captain, we have sixty dreadnaughts approaching us with what looks like an intention to ram us,” the sensor officer announced.
“Standby star drive, weapons, I want our primary beams fired continuously until they come within two miles of our location, then jump to five miles behind them. I also want every one of them that aren’t covered by another ship hit with a needle. Rotate the ship so all 100 needle ports can be used if necessary.”
The Atlanta had a three mile circle around it blasting anything that entered the radius of that circle. Needles were striking the ships just outside the circle blowing them apart with the 600 hornets that were contained in each needles core. Ten dreadnaughts accelerated at the Atlanta and suddenly the Human ship disappeared and reappeared behind them and continued the destruction. All sixty dreadnaughts in the original run at the Atlanta were dead, an additional seventy were killed trying to support the original forty. Tag thought, “We’ve never killed ships this fast.” He looked at the sensor officer and asked, “How many destroyed and how many have we lost?”
“I need more time to compile the total number but just our ship has killed 320 ships so far, make that 400, and only one of our ships had withdrawn from the conflict. One of the Tallahassee’s needle ports malfunctioned and blew a section of its hull away; it is jumping back to Earth for repairs. All other ships are still fighting, Sir.”
Tag was stunned.
Harauik watched his fleet die around him. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Within the first sixty sems he had lost 5,000 ships. After 120 sems had passed another 8,000 were dead. Now half his fleet was gone and the other half was going quickly. “How many of them have we killed,” he asked.
“The sensor officer looked at the Hargon and said, “None.”
Harauik was sick. All his pride, all his stubbornness, all his belief in his invincibility was gone. Then he saw in his display that one of those Human ships had jumped in front of his ship and he knew that his time was over. The thing that troubled him the most was he had taken most of his home world’s fleet into this battle and now most of them were gone. Just as his ship was blown into dust, he thought, “Perhaps the Humans will protect my people.”
The sensor officer aboard the Atlanta said, “Sir, most of the Alliance ships are turning and moving out of the system.”
“Order an immediate cease fire,” Tag shouted.
The worlds of the Alliance watched the battle and knew real fear. The ones that were planning to attack their neighbors decided that perhaps they would wait. No one was willing to give these Humans a reason to attack them. Every planet watched and waited for what was to follow.
“State Leader Sten,” Tag commed.
“Yes, I’m here.”
“It is not in my province to tell you how to run your government but now is the time for you to build something here that is worth saving. I will be removing my ships from your worlds in two rotations. You need to make sure the aggressive members have their claws clipped. Before you try to say that you are no longer the State Leader, after what happened today, you have gained more power than you know. You might hint that you don’t want to have to call the humans for help; that should make them hesitate. We do not choose to rule by force and ordinarily we would have left you alone but we just couldn’t let you kill each other without trying to help. However,
