James was walking down the hallway of his ship when two Omagrons raced over to him and rubbed their heads against his legs. He looked down at the three and a half foot tall lizards realizing that they were giving him the Omagron equivalent of a hug. Surprised, he asked, "What?
"Thank you, thank you," the pair said. They proceeded to spout some more words in a very excited manner.
Considering that 'thank you' was about the extent of his Omagron, James had no idea what they were trying to tell him. The best he could guess was that he had done something they liked. When the pair finally wound down, he answered, "You're welcome."
Apparently satisfied with his answer, the Omagrons ran off. Scratching his head, James said, "I wonder what that was about."
He continued his walk down the hall trying to figure out why the two Omagrons had done that. Nothing came to mind that would explain it. He spotted Kim walking towards him. Raising a hand, he said, "Hello, Kim."
"Hello, Admiral Kamp," Kim said.
James said, "Hello, Kim. I had a weird thing happen to me just a minute ago."
"What?" she asked.
"Two Omagrons ran up to me and rubbed their heads against my legs. They spouted something that I assume was thanks and then ran off," James said.
Kim said, "They must be celebrating. From what I understand there is a population explosion going on among the Omagrons. It seems that two couples laid three dozen eggs each. All of the aliens are talking about it."
"Oh, so I take it that the privacy rooms are working," James said absently.
Kim wondered why he mentioned the privacy rooms. Curious, she asked, "What do the privacy rooms have to do with Omagrons laying a bunch of eggs?"
"Oops," James said. Knowing that couples who shared a room aboard ship had very little space for romantic romps, James had come up with the idea of creating two rooms side by side that were furnished like a hotel room. In each room there was a nice table for a romantic dinner, a large bed, music, and soft lights. There was even enough room for a couple to dance if they desired. Needless to say, the two rooms had become very popular. He didn't mention that the rooms were not shielded against the Human Mating Effect.
Kim's eyes went wide as she realized what James had done. He had set up the rooms so that the aliens could use the Human Mating Effect to promote breeding. She laughed at the idea of couples enjoying a private tryst while serving as an aphrodisiac to aliens in the room next door. She asked, "You didn't?"
"Maybe," James said with a sly grin and a waggle of his eyebrows.
"Is that why the only information about the individuals signing up to use the room is their species?" Kim asked. She had wondered why there was such a demand for the room by the aliens.
"It might be," James said.
She thought about it for a second and then frowned. She said, "Hey, wait a minute! Ken and I used it last night!"
"Sorry," James said shrugging his shoulders.
Kim was silent for a moment while she recalled Ann telling her all about the Privacy Rooms. She asked, "Does Ann know you did this?"
"No and I'd like to keep it that way."
"She's going to kill you," Kim said shaking her head.
"You know, those are the same words that Ken said to me when we talked about this," James said.
"Ken knew?" Kim asked putting her hands on her hips. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at James.
James smiled at her and said, "Oops."
The briefing room was filled with the Brain Trust. They were watching a real-time feed from the star ship that was parked twenty light years away from earth. A Chitiniodian hunter fleet had just arrived. James said, "They'll perform a scan."
They could see the data scrolling past that indicated that the scan was taking place. James said, "Now they'll fire three missiles at the star ship."
Three missiles flew from the Chitiniodian lead ship towards the star ship. James said, "Now we'll see what they do next."
Fifteen missiles flew from the lead ship to the star ship. The star ship dealt with the missiles without a problem. James said, "That's interesting. I bet they all fire at it next."
A few seconds later, all seven ships fired fifteen missiles each at the star ship. The star ship managed to deal with all of the missiles again. Dryly, Ken said, "Their tactics are pretty straight forward. Just keep firing until you kill the other guy or he kills you."
"Yeah," James said as another volley was launched at the star ship. James was about to order Captain Madison to return fire when the Chitiniodian hunter fleet was destroyed.
At the far end of the table, Captain Anders was sweating. He said, "I was a little worried that they wouldn't be able to handle so many missiles."
"We know. You've said that several times," James said looking at the man. It seemed that the overly optimistic Captain Anders had turned into a pessimist as a result of his time on the star ship.
Captain Madison's clicks were heard over the communications channel. Starman translated it, "We had no problems here, Admiral Kamp."
James said, "Good job, Captain Madison."
"It is our way of claiming more territory. It felt like the old days," Captain Madison replied. He would have stayed there all day taking missile fire, but he had been under orders to return fire in the event that all of the ships had fired upon him. He added, "The whole crew is very happy."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," James said shaking his head. The whole idea of letting someone fire at you until they got tired of it was just a bit beyond him. At least they had the perfect crew for this mission.
"We'll send shuttles out to collect debris," Captain Madison said, "Maybe we'll find something useful."
"Excellent," James said as the feed cut out.
Turning to Captain Anders, James asked, "How many missiles can the defense platform stop?"
"We've got fifty lasers. It takes a laser approximately two tenths of a second to acquire and destroy a missile. It takes a missile less than two seconds to burrow through the shield. So each laser can handle about ten missiles. That would put the upper limit at around five hundred missiles," Captain Anders answered. He had decreased the actual amount of time required to burrow through the shields and increased the amount of time required to acquire and destroy a missile a little. It was a very conservative estimate.
"Are there any problems with that estimate?" James asked.
"Well, that assumes that the missiles are evenly distributed around the star ship. You can cut the figure in half or a third when it is attacked from one side," Captain Anders answered. He was afraid that he would be sent to the star ship to observe operations again.
James said, "We need to work out a strategy for dealing with the next fleet."
Captain Alberts said, "In the first round, we destroy four of them. They'll see that we can handle three missiles. We take out the rest in the second round. We send three missiles at each ship. That will suggest that our maximum rate of fire is twelve missiles. We don't let them know that we can handle all seven at once or that our ability to tunnel through their shields is better than theirs."
Cousin Itt said, "We fire the missiles from the behind the star ship."
Nodding his head, James said, "We want to fire on them before they can fire their second round of missiles. If they are transmitting the engagement, they will not know if their second round of missiles were successful in breaching our defenses."
Cousin Itt said, "That is logical."
Captain Alberts smiled and said, "Considering their mind set, they'll assume that the second round of missiles were successful."
"They won't even know about the umbrellas," James said with a smile. That would be a nice little surprise when the bigger fleet showed up.
Smiling at the end of the table, Ken said, "We haven't even brought the fighters into play yet."
Turning to Captain Anders, James asked, "Have you given much effort to creating a fighter for the Dactites?"
Captain Anders nodded his head and answered, "We believe that we can make a real small fighter that is fast and very maneuverable for them. They won't be much more complicated than a two rockets joined together with a missile underneath them. They'll ride the rockets and fire the missile. Once they've fired their missile, they'll get out of the area to reload. We'll be able to create them by the thousands."
Captain Fixit, the Dactite member of the Brain Trust, said, "It will be like how we used to fight. Early in our history, we would run up in a swarm on our enemy and each of us would throw a rock. Then we'd run away."
"We already have a battle cruiser, but we haven't built one since encountering the Quatyl," the Margot member of the Brain Trust said.
"Start building," James said amazed that they hadn't stared doing that. He looked around the table and said, "All of you should start rebuilding your war fleets."
Cousin Itt said, "We don't really have a war fleet. We use mines to keep the enemy away."
"Start building mines," James said wondering why he hadn't even considered that strategy. The image that he was beginning to get of this war was of the Chitiniodians being rabid lemmings rushing madly to the cliff in their insane desire to kill. His forces would have to be the cliff.
Captain Beac had the unpleasant duty of being the Quatyl representative in the Brain Trust. All of this talk of fighting made him nauseous. All he wanted to do was to run away and hide. He said, "We've never fought."
"I know," James said. He was silent for a moment and then said, "Keep exploring for more species. Maybe you'll find one that can help us."
"We can do that," Captain Beac said.
While the average Engel was fairly stupid, the Engel seated on the Brain Trust was one of the rare geniuses of that species. It fell upon his slightly sloped shoulders to direct the energies of several billion of his fellow Engels. Seeing an opportunity for his race to contribute to the war, he said, "We can build your ships. I will get every Engel focused on that project."
"That's a good idea, Whip" James said not quite sure what that meant.
Captain Alberts asked, "Are we agreed on a strategy?"
James frowned and said, "There's one little detail that is bothering me."
"What?" Captain Alberts asked not liking this at all.
James said, "If our ship gets hit with three missiles and our lasers destroy them before they do any damage, then they'll know that we can defeat their missiles. I don't like that idea at all."
Captain Alberts looked over at Cousin Itt hoping that the Dromat had an answer. Cousin Itt said, "You are right."
Being the wife of an Admiral had some advantages. For one, Ann had more room to entertain than the wife of any other officer aboard the ship. It wasn't much, but it did mean that she had lots of company. She had taken to having a weekly afternoon tea party on Wednesdays with the wives of the other officers. It was often the only time she got to spend with Kim.
Ann missed having those heart to heart chats with Kim that only close friends have. One Friday afternoon Ann invited Kim over for a nice long chat. Ann brought Ice along with her so that the Quatyl could visit with each other as well.
"James seems a little depressed to me," Ann said once the two women had made themselves comfortable around the table.
"That doesn't sound like James," Kim said. If there was anyone who was upbeat, it was James.
Shrugging her shoulders, Ann said, "I found Irving today."
"He surprised you again with that little plastic spider," Kim said shaking her head. If it was her, she would have thrown that thing out years ago.
"No. It was sitting on his dresser," Ann said sadly.
"It was just sitting on his dresser?" Kim asked in surprise.
Nodding her head, Ann said, "Yes. It was just sitting there. No surprise or anything. I realized that it had been sitting there for weeks."
"You're kidding?" Kim said.
"I think the responsibility of being an Admiral is not good for James," Ann said. She had been worried that he wouldn't take it seriously. Now she was worried that he was taking it too seriously.
"That's not good," Kim said. She tried to remember the last time James had pulled any tricks on her or Ken. It seemed like it had been months ago.
"I don't know what to do," Ann said and then sighed. It was a long depressed sign.
Kim frowned. She had never seen her friend this depressed. She asked, "What does Starman say?"
"He says that James has been a most attentive pet, but doesn't talk much anymore. He says that James strokes his back through almost all of the meetings," Ann answered. "I'm not sure that is a good thing. They used to discuss who was the pet and who was the owner all of the time."
"This does sound bad," Kim said.
"I know," Ann said. She took a sip of her coffee and then asked, "What can I do?"
"Take a vacation and have a kid," Ann answered absently while thinking about a real solution to the problem.
"That's not a bad idea," Ann said perking up. It seemed to her that everyone was having children all of a sudden. The Omagrons were breeding like flies. It was getting hard to walk around the space ship without finding a foot and a half tall young Omagron out exploring the world.
"Uh, I'm not sure the universe is ready for a baby James," Kim said sounding worried.
"We might be lucky and get a baby Ann," Ann replied with a laugh.
A horrible thought occurred to Kim. She said, "You might have twin boys."
Ann shivered and said, "Don't even joke about that."
Admiral 2c1b2t was of mixed moods concerning the disappearance of another hunter fleet. On one hand, he didn't like losing ships. On the other hand, it looked like they had stumbled across another alien race that fought rather than ran away like a lot of them did. There was the opportunity for glory here. He had to destroy just one more world to be a Lord and there was a world here to destroy.
He frowned as he read the report a second time. The hunter fleet had indicated that they met a single ship. The ship was a sphere and was just sitting in space doing nothing. The problem was that ships didn't sit in space doing nothing. Space stations sat in space doing nothing, but the report clearly indicated that it was a ship. He turned to his aide and asked, "Are you sure this is an accurate report?"
"It is the report that was transmitted," his aide answered.
"It says there was only one ship," Admiral 2c1b2t said. If he had a brow, it would have been furrowed. He didn't, so it wasn't.
"Yes, sir," his aide said.
"A whole hunter fleet was destroyed by one ship?" Admiral 2c1b2t asked finding it hard to believe.
"So it would appear," his aide answered. If he had eyes capable of rolling, he would have been rolling them about that time.
"There's no defensive wall," Admiral 2c1b2t said more to himself than the aide.
"There was no mention of a defensive wall," the aide commented.
"I'm a little disappointed," Admiral 2c1b2t said. He was looking forward to another engagement like they had with the Boggums.
"I understand, sir," the aide said.
Setting aside his momentary disappointment, Admiral 2c1b2t said, "Tell the next hunter patrol to broadcast their engagement. I have to know what these aliens are capable of doing."
"Yes, sir," the aide said.
"No single ship should be able to withstand the offensive might of a hunter fleet," Admiral 2c1b2t said. Although a Chitiniodian planet buster was capable of withstanding a hunter fleet, it couldn't withstand three hunter fleets. It was also the most powerful ship in the Chitiniodian Space Force.
"Yes, sir," his aide replied. He had read the report. An entire hunter fleet getting destroyed by a single ship is what seemed to have happened.
"Have seven hunter fleets meet in space. We'll send a larger force in after we have a better idea what these aliens can do," Admiral 2c1b2t said deciding to be conservative in his approach to this problem.
"Yes, sir."
"They encountered one ship," Admiral 2c1b2t said shaking his head.
"Yes, sir," the aide replied. He could understand the admiral's confusion. He'd entertained the same thoughts when he had first read the report. He added, "It was just sitting there."
"And it is a sphere," Admiral 2c1b2t said. The shape was confusing as well. There was no need to build ships in any special geometry. Space didn't require aerodynamics. All of the ships they had encountered to date were misshapen lumps.
"Is that significant?" the aide asked.
"I don't know," Admiral 2c1b2t answered. There were just too many questions for which he had no answers. It was rather disturbing.
"Yes, sir," the aide said knowing that was a safe response regardless of what was happening.
"Any chance it might have been a space station?" the Admiral asked. The fact that it was just sitting there in space really bothered him.
"Perhaps Captain four clicks — four thrums — one drum was mistaken in calling it a ship," the aide said.
Admiral 2c1b2t said, "That would make sense. It had ships in dock and they destroyed the hunter fleet."
"Yes, sir," the aide said.
"It is too small to be a space station," Admiral 2c1b2t said looking at the report. The ship was reportedly the same size as a hunter ship.
"Yes, sir," the aide said thinking that they were making no progress very quickly.
Admiral 2c1b2t said, "I wish I knew what was going on there."
"Yes, sir," the aid said.
"Well, get to it," Admiral 2c1b2t said.
"Yes, sir," the aide said as he scurried from the room. He had almost forgotten what he was supposed to do.
"Two titanic powers faced each other with violence in their hearts. It was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. The tension was incredible. I stood there on the bridge of the ship hardly able to breathe. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest like a big bass drum. Do you know that feeling?" James said looking at the young ensign who had been assigned to be his aide.
"Yes, sir," the ensign said sitting on the edge of his seat. He had just asked Admiral Kamp about the most exciting military engagement that he had ever observed. He had heard stories about the engagements with the Chitiniodians. Now, he had a chance to hear the story from the man who had been there.
James leaned forward with his eyes narrowed. Pointing his finger at the ensign, he said, "Then the event that we were all waiting for happened. It is at times like that when you know you're alive. The blood courses through your veins. You hold your breath. The whole time you are just hoping that you survive. Even to this day, I can't help but feel energized when I think about it. I want you to know that I was there for the whole thing."
"Yes, sir," the ensign said.
"I feared that my bravery would fail me, but I stayed there knowing that if I were to run that I would never be able to face myself in the mirror ever again," James said. He leaned forward and whispered, "You should hope that your courage is never tested like that."
"Yes, sir," the ensign said nodding his head. He knew that James had stood on the bridge of the star ship as the Chitiniodians fired upon it. He didn't know if he would be able to stand there calm and collected while the enemy fired upon him.
"Just like that, it happened," James said snapping his finger.
"What happened?" the ensign asked jumping in his seat when James had snapped his fingers. This was the most exciting war story he had ever heard.
"We declared war on the Quatyl and then they surrendered," James answered sitting back in his chair.
"Huh?" the ensign said dumbfounded.
"It was amazing. Did you know that was the shortest war in history?" James asked.
"Uh..."
"It makes me proud that I observed the whole thing," James said shaking his head while looking up at the ceiling. He slipped his hand into his coat like Napoleon.
Not sure how to react, but convinced that laughing at the Admiral would shorten his career, the ensign said, "Oh."
Patting the young man on the shoulder, James said, "You just can't beat the excitement of an event like that, Ensign Powell."
"Yes, sir," Ensign Powell said politely. He hoped the dinner wasn't going to last much longer. He wanted to get back to his quarters so that he could rethink this assignment.