me not selecting them. I do know that being from Earth will cause sentiment that I might be playing favorites with my own race if I choose to stay here.”
“Let’s get Atlas involved in this. Atlas, are you listening in?”
“I wasn’t until Danielle thought about the link I gave you. Congratulations on your new baby.”
“Thank you, Atlas,” Danielle thought, “Do you have any ideas about how I get around this issue of playing favorites in selecting the location of my home?”
The ancient Alfont Ship hesitated then said, “Danielle, you must select a location that has a valid reason for its selection. All your subjects want is to know why you chose to be where you are. Is there a place that no other planet can match for its selection?”
Danielle reflected a moment and thought back, “Obviously, Earth, Cainth, and Glod as the original members and founders of the Stars Realm would make sense but selecting any one of them would still cause the other two to feel slighted.”
Tag could sense her frustration and wanted to protect her from bad feelings so soon after Rose was born; he said, “Danielle, I don’t see a way out of this box; you’re just going to have to choose and the others will just have to understand.”
“I guess. Let me think about it.”
“Tag,” Atlas said, “Admiral Dorg is leaving shortly for the Dremels system and is planning to meet with them. It was a good idea to send Klas with him to interpret. I must say that his new ship really impressed the Pydres and the Human Colonists on Ross when he showed up to bring him on board while Dorg was at the hospital.”
“Those ships are very impressive,” Tag thought back.
“That’s it!” said Danielle.
“What’s it?” said Tag.
“Ross will be the new capital and my home.”
Tag and Atlas both were silent for a moment then Atlas said, “Ross is the site of the opening conflict between the Alliance and Humans.”
“It was also where 20 % of the colonists were executed by the Cainth and our first marine casualties happened,” Tag added.
“It’s where everything started that eventually led to the formation of the Stars Realm,” Danielle said, “and I can say I’ve chosen it to honor the ones that lost their lives to make everything possible. The Cainth, the Glod, and Humans along with thirty three other planets all lost some of their citizens in that first battle at Ross and the subsequent fleet action. No other planet can say it was first.”
“It’s an excellent choice, Danielle,” Atlas said, “and as undeveloped as it is, no one can accuse you of playing any kind of favorite in its selection.”
“Can you be satisfied living there instead of one of the more developed planets?” Tag asked. “There is little in the way of urban development.”
Danielle smiled, “How long do you think it will remain undeveloped if we announce that my new capital will be located there? It will become the center for all races to come visit. I can see a huge tourist trade just to sightsee. It also has a very small population and I suspect that a lot of our members will have some of their people move to Ross to be near the government center. It also has all the natural resources necessary to build the structures needed as the population grows. We will also make sure we don’t overdevelop like Sten’s planet; we’ll make sure we keep enough agriculture to support our population. Trust me, it will develop faster than we imagine.”
“Well, when are you going to make the announcement?” Tag asked.
Danielle laughed and said, “Soon. We need to start construction on a place to live with a nursery.” Danielle pressed a button on her com and said, “Leila, would you please come back in!”
“Talk with you later, Love,” Tag thought.
“Leila, we are going to make Ross our new capital.”
Leila looked shocked for a moment then said, “No one can argue with that choice with all the new history that was written there. I’ll notify the government on Ross of our selection and swear them to secrecy then I will send Eric to select the site of our government center. Once that’s selected and we’ve guaranteed the property, you’ll need to release a notice to the members of the Realm and let them know of our new home. Danielle, it’s the perfect choice. No one can feel slighted. I suspect a large number of companies will follow you there.”
“I think you’re right.” Danielle felt a warm glow from Rose and she thought, “Oh, you approve also. I love you little one.” The glow got warmer. Danielle closed her eyes and felt her child lying on her breast.
Tag looked at Kosiev and noticed him watching while he was communicating with Danielle. “We’re ready to begin our trial of the new needles,” Kosiev said.
“Let’s see what they can do, what’s the target?”
“It’s the old Los Angeles. We have a new megaship being launched in a week using that name so we’re going to use the old one to see if our needles are stronger. Our old needles would not have penetrated the screens of the Los Angeles.”
“Well, let’s see what we’ve got,” Tag said.
Kosiev turned on his com and said, “Power up the screens and let me know when Los Angles is at full power.”
Ensign Orton said, “Screens are at full power, Sir.”
“Weapons, fire when ready,” Kosiev ordered.
Tag watched the display showing the Los Angeles hidden behind its screen when suddenly an intensely bright light flashed out from the Moscow and hit the Los Angeles. The beam went completely through the ship and out the other side. “Holy Groad,” Tag said.
“I was afraid of that,” Kosiev said. “We shot her through her tail so as not to damage her screen generators. Let’s move away to about 70 miles and give it another try.”
“Admiral, can you use the needles for close in fighting if it goes thru the ship you’re firing at?”
“What we will have to do is make the beam wider. Instead of punching a three foot hole in the target, we’ll have to adjust the needle to a ten foot circumference. That should contain it in the target.”
“If you puncture a ten foot hole in a ship, do you really need to use the hornets?” Tag asked.
“You’ve seen some of those Algean ships. Some of them are more than twenty miles in length. We need that big a hole to get enough hornets inside to blow it up. The hornets are programmed so that the first ones to enter the ship will blow holes through the walls so that the others can scatter throughout the target. Let’s see if this is a good range now. Weapons fire when ready,” Kosiev commanded.
Tag watched the display of the Los Angeles and the intense beam struck her again and burned a hole thru her hull but did not penetrate out the other side. “One more shot weapons but this time I want 10 hornets loaded into the needle; fire when ready.”
Tag saw that the screen was still working on the wounded ship; it was pretty good shooting to miss the screen generators at this distance. Once again the beam struck and burned a hole in the hull but this time the ship exploded into a huge explosion that shot debris in all directions. “What have we learned Admiral?” Tag asked amazed at how fast the hornets destroyed the Battleship.
“Well, it looks like our standard size needle is good on normal ships out to ninety miles. If a standard ship gets closer than twenty miles we will have to expand the needle to thirty feet wide to prevent total penetration. We will write into the needles software the parameters based on distance. There are three hundred needle ports on the new Megaships and there are three gunnery crews handling one hundred each. We need that many because of the numbers of ships we expect to encounter. We also have a brand new weapon that has been developed out of our needle technology.”
“Do I dare ask what it is?” Tag said.
Kosiev said, “Currently, our ships do not use missiles over long distances. We have to wait for the enemy to come into range and fire at them with our screen weapons. Our weapon scientists have developed a pulse penetrator.”
“What is that?”
“It’s similar to a needle. An energy cannon shoots a pulsed beam containing anywhere from 10 to 500 hornets thru our screen and it leaves using a Coronado Cell for propulsion. The hornet’s guidance system inside the pulse will be attracted by any ship that doesn’t have a Coronado Screen within 300 miles. It will penetrate the
