The Grays Read online

  “That kind of automation bothers me though, it seems safer to have a human at the firing button and running the military grade sensors. It’s also possible if an enemy determines what we have, they can work around it. One way is to simply use some sensor modifying field around their ships, so they all look like different ships. At that point, I’d have to define every single one, and we’d lose platforms in the meantime.

  “It also wouldn’t have worked well three days ago, since there were ten thousand different fleets, all with different scanned parameters. It’d take me hours to enter in so many disparate readings as enemy ships to that kind of system.”

  Of course, there was an option that would make that work a lot better, but I’d be insane to try it. A.I. was just a terrifying idea.

  Jayna shrugged, “Maybe as a primary system it would be beatable. But, a few million platforms, in addition to say a fleet of two hundred thousand or so ships crewed by human soldiers on Earth. I mean, when most of the fleet is mothballed after the current war. Those humans could enter targets too, making it far more effective. They’d also be able to help counter any weaknesses discovered.”

  “That’s not a bad idea. But the other one point two million ships would become the platforms. Perhaps I’d double them, maybe more, and park them in a strategic web around the solar system. It might also get past Cassie’s objections. Of course, our ships, and the planet, would be hardcoded as not an enemy, so some idiot couldn’t add them on accident, or a maniac on purpose.”

  Jessica snickered.

  Cassie smirked, “I think they’d go for that, if their soldiers had access to the system. Still, will we even need it once the Grays are gone? Just one of our ships could take down a fleet of any other race in the Empire. We could just put a couple of thousand ships in each of the nine solar systems, and then mothball the rest for future expansion to those worlds we’ll expand to eventually.”

  I nodded, “It’s not the empire members I’m worried about. It’s the Grays’ enemies outside the empire that concern me. There has to be some, or they’d have expanded, and we know nothing about them or their capabilities, outside the fact they’ll be a match for the Grays’ technology and weapons. Maybe I’m overreacting, but it isn’t like it cost us any money to build ships, and without crews it doesn’t cost Earth money to supply food and bodies. It’s… just an option, in case we need it I want to have it ready to go.”

  Jayna said, “But you’re worried we won’t get enough warning to build it.”

  I sighed, “Yes, that one. We’re balancing politics and balance of power issues against possible eradication. Still, it’s not as bad of a gamble, because we’re only two point five million light years from the center of the Grays vast empire. Word will reach us of external invasion in plenty of time to build appropriately, and though that’s a gamble it’s not a horrible one.”

  Cassie nodded, “Exactly. Times up though, we have a meeting to attend. Jessica?”

  Jessica nodded, and brought up the connection to the command center for the joint space navy on Earth. It wasn’t anything official, no treaties, the countries normally at each other’s throats or in competition had started to come together.

  I thought it was temporary due to the threat, but maybe not. With two thousand ready to move in worlds, and four thousand more we can develop, we wouldn’t be fighting each other for resources anytime soon. Outside threats weren’t going away either, and life would only get better with life extension, as well as cures for diseases and other illnesses which will shortly be a thing of the past. Even our ability to deal with trauma, heal nerve damage, and make the paralyzed walk, not to mention genetic problems that could be fixed.

  Maybe the world would grow up after all, given all that, and cooperate.

  I held back a snort. Maybe the sun would rise in the west tomorrow, I really was naïve sometimes. I wasn’t greedy to rule and compete against other countries, but then I’d gained power and my station out of necessity. It’d been either that, or lay down and die, and being content with what I had and what was coming wasn’t something most ambitious politicians would feel.

  Point being, I didn’t think I was better than most humans, I just thought I was more moral with my power than most politicians. Granted, that was a low bar to reach…

  Chapter Two

  “Good morning. I’m Admiral Dennison, and I have been chosen to make a presentation of the war plan we’ve mapped out to ensure the Earth’s safety. One we have all agreed on, despite our pasts of being at odds, and we all hope our leaders will give the final approval.”

  Dennison paused for a moment, and he looked at the other Admirals and even some Generals from around the world in the room, who all nodded at him in agreement. It was a statement to their leaders that took me by surprise, and that I applauded, at least, in my mind.

  Dennison said, “First, the general overall plan. We plan to leave one point four million of the ships behind, just in case Earth is attacked while we’re away. The offensive force of one million dreadnought class ships will split into two thousand fleets of five hundred dreadnoughts. That will enable us to take down two thousand planets at once, meaning it will take twenty-five fleet actions to finish off the Grays in Andromeda, given their fifty thousand planets.

  “Given the timeline of ten hours in and out, and perhaps a day to accomplish our objectives, that means the war will last fifty days. Our intentions are not genocide. We will destroy all technical infrastructure, both in the solar systems and on the planet. Essentially, we are going to return the bastards to the stone age. They will have to relearn their technology the hard way, and most of them will die in their cities when we remove them from orbit. We hope you agree, genocide is not an option we feel comfortable with. They have done it to others, and they no doubt deserve it, but we’re better than they are, and they won’t be a threat again for many millennia, if even then.”

  He frowned, “Besides, it’s likely one of the other races will finish the job for us. We also won’t protect them.”

  He continued, “That’s the general strategy for all worlds, save six. According to the data on the enemy that was provided to us by President Akin of Astraeus, those systems have between a thousand and two thousand warships in them, when the rest of the worlds have a few handfuls for defense, less than fifty. Those six worlds we’ll be invading and staying for a while. We suspect one of them is likely the original home world of the species, and no doubt has a lot of data on both their history and thousands of years of technical advancements. We also believe if they have more ships and command centers than the internal empire fleet, we’ll find those control centers on one of these six worlds.

  “Many agree with the concerns brought to light that the Grays have external enemies that they have not shared with their member worlds. In fact, the Grays really don’t tell us anything, outside of their restrictive rules and where all the other FTL species are. No doubt to keep us in the dark, which kept them safer, until they decided to come after us anyway.

  “Point being, we’ll be taking out their fleets in those systems, and then searching those planets for military sites to investigate. If we find such a command center, we’ll utilize the equipment given to us by President Akin that will infiltrate their systems, download their data, and even show us all the locations of their current fleet, and or other fleets if they indeed exist.

  “I hate to say it, but there has to be other fleets, the ship numbers we believe they have aren’t near enough to protect fifty galaxies from other expansionist empires. There’s a small chance of course, that we’re wrong, and the Grays stopped expanding for another reason, but the risk is too high to ignore the possibility, and we need that intelligence at all costs.

  “At best, we will discover the Grays’ enemies, their total fleet numbers, where they’re stationed, and where those enemies are and what their technology is like, etc. At worst, even if we’re wrong about all that and I don’t think we are, we’ll find a lot of technical data and millennia of history to go through and learn from.

  “Regardless, that’s our justification. We’re asking for six hundred thousand ground troops to secure government installations on the surface. First, we’ll take out the fleets in their system, then take out all infrastructure. We’ll find the likely military structures on the surface. Once it’s all secure, and safe enough, we’ll send for the troops, and we want one troop ship with a hundred thousand ground troops at each planet. It’d be far too risky to bring so many human soldiers with us for the battle in space itself.

  “The occupation of those six worlds will be long term. What I mean is we’ll be staying and securing any command and control centers until we’re finished hunting down all warships and the five million or so scout ships. Basically, using their systems against them so they can’t escape. As I said, that should take somewhere around fifty days, perhaps sixty, with a million ships split up into two thousand fleets of five hundred.

  “That’s the meat of the plan, and the presentation. Obviously, the details are in the report, the logistics of it all, the food we’ll need to outfit the ships with for three months to give us leeway. I don’t expect it will go quite so smoothly, and we’ll no doubt have to adjust the plan after the enemy’s tactics become apparent.”

  One of the leaders on the call asked, “What if they surrender?”

  The admiral nodded, “We won’t be accepting surrender for the most part. They already tried to commit genocide on us twice, and they have done so countless times before to other civilizations. They simply can’t be trusted. That means surrender to them is saying to us, give us some time to catch up on your technological edge so we can kill you later. That is just not an option.

  “Now I say for the most part, because they might present us with evidence of their enemies, or some other reason, that would drive us into a temporary cease fire until we can assure ourselves we aren’t shooting ourselves in the foot at the same time we’re saving ourselves. In blunt terms, we’ll be pausing before we’re in a better position, much like they’d be trying to do. We simply can’t trust them, at this point it’s either them or us, we can’t afford to be gracious, and give them the time to close the military superiority gap.

  “We will also accept surrender with conditions. If they agree to scuttle their ships and leave their cities, we can send them back to the stone age with a minimum of casualties. But, we don’t think that will happen.

  “That doesn’t make us like them though, I hope we plan to live in peace with all other species, and not in paranoia that they’ll destroy us the first chance they get. But those that attack us first, and have previously committed genocide, we can never trust them.”

  The device he was talking about me giving them was just a tiny group of nanites that were entangled with the station. If they put it on a console in a command center, I could hack the command center with magic, and give the troops there on site permissions to view the ship locations and the ship counts. I could also forward that data on to the world leaders and the joint admirals in the Earth’s joint command center.

  Of course, I’d be using magic to do the hacking part, but they didn’t know that, they thought I was just amazingly good with technology, even if none of their scientists could hack the nanite tech. It was also why the soldiers and six fleets needed to stay on and by those six worlds, to protect that access. Otherwise someone on the planet could destroy it, allowing some of their fleets to escape and start over somewhere else. The last thing we needed was for them to return one day to take their revenge. Their fault or not, they surely wouldn’t see it that way.

  I’d also furnish the soldiers with protective suits like the one for my security people, and friends. Not on Earth, because of the whole balance of power thing, but on an alien planet? Our soldiers wearing shielded suits with built in energy weapons and the ability to fly down and back up to the ship in orbit would preserve lives. Well, human lives.

  In all, I thought the plan well thought out, and it was general enough in scope that we could adjust quickly if necessary. Simple plans were more often than not, the best kind of plans. Elaborate plans tended to fall apart quickly, given the enemy got a vote as well. We just had better weapons, thanks to the sexiest scientist ever. But that was just my opinion, the sexiest part I mean.

  There were a few other questions, but in the end all the world leaders approved the plan as was. They’d be moving out the next day with the fleets in question, and ten hours after that they’d be on their way to Andromeda. With wormholes, that’d only take about an hour.

  I hoped it went well, and of course I’d be monitoring as I did my normal jobs of ruling and designing new things to sell, from toys to deadly ships and weapons. After all, they were my ships, and all connected to my space station.

  We’d also let all the other races know when it was done. It might take a long time for the races to build one of those communicators Diana invented that didn’t need entangled particles, but at the very least we’d be able to pass messages thought he Vax until that happened. An intergalactic grapevine of sorts, that would eventually get the information all across the empire.

  Maybe one day we’d be a conglomerate of treaty allies, but I wasn’t sure about that one either. Probably too optimistic, but if we shot for the stars maybe we’d at least reach the sky, proverbially speaking.

  Chapter Three

  Diana and Jayna were already in the kitchen when Cassie and I called it a day. I gave the former a hug and light kiss, and held her for a moment, just long enough to make her blush given our audience. It’d been a long day, but I’d made some progress on the automated defense platform idea.

  I gave my sister a curious glance as I released Diana.

  Jayna was holding a thin curved sword with an amazed look on her face. Her magic was out too, as she studied the thing. Another thing I noticed was a new tablecloth and linen napkins, as well as crystal vase with a rose in it.

  “What’s going on.”

  They both looked a bit dazed and deep in thought as they looked over at me.

  Jayna said, “This sword feels forged to my magic, folded many times, and tempered. It didn’t exist half an hour ago.”

  Diana said, “I cracked it, about two hours ago. Not just creating matter but bonding it. The vase, tablecloth, and linens are new too.”

  “The Rose?”

  Diana shook her head, “We could make one, but it’d be dead, without support systems of some kind I mean.”

  I sighed, “We need to make this top secret, and use it sparingly. The world isn’t ready for this.”

  Diana tilted her head, “Why?”

  I frowned in thought.

  “For me and you it’d be fine. There’s a whole lot more mysteries to the universe for you to discover, and for me protecting the Earth will never get old. Think of all the billions we’ve made since opening the station, and all the things we sell. Outside of designing things, there’s no real effort put into it, almost all the labor is in invention and design. That’s it. The ships build themselves. Both of those things give us a purpose and meaning to our efforts. Even the people on the station, they find value in service and giving tours, things like that give meaning to what we do as humans.

  “That new technology takes it a step further, and in one way it’s a good thing. You just made our station one hundred percent independent, we can make anything we have the pattern for. If sometime in the future we’re ever cut off from Earth for any reason, it would no longer be a concern.”

  I shrugged, “On Earth, there are inventors and service people as well. I think if this went public and was used in the mainstream those people would be fine too, find purpose and meaning in life. But, a whole lot of people on Earth find purpose in manufacturing jobs, things of that nature, which quite frankly would be done away with given the technology.

  “Back to the money. The whole economy revolves around labor, production, and assigning value to something when it’s made based on all those factors. That’s why I think we should continue to import things, balance our exports which aren’t really costing us a thing already. It’s why we’re so rich right now, and the station is so far ahead that way, because making ships, biomed beds, and the other devices we sell on Earth doesn’t really cost us a thing.

  “It almost feels like cheating in a way, and it has no value. Even dealing with the Vax, it doesn’t cost us anything to install a wormhole drive, and then we turn around and sell the Vax products to Earth for something they’ve made. If it wasn’t for keeping the station safe, protecting Earth, and designing things to make, I wouldn’t feel useful at all.

  “Just creating things out of thin air would remove their value. It would also destroy our society for up to ninety percent of the people on Earth. It’s the whole no one values something if it’s free. Economics also ties us all together. With that technology the merchants could just go out in space and buy one of everything humans could be interested in from alien traders, scan in a pattern, and start spitting them out of an energy to matter device.

  “I’m not sure if I’m explaining it well. What it comes down to is if everything was free or of little value, it would destroy us and our civilization would collapse. Or at least, those of us who don’t find purpose and meaning elsewhere, like inventors, scientists, designers, authors, and the service industry types. The connections we make from trade are also valuable in and of themselves. If we’d had this technology, and we’d brushed off the Vax and started pirating their stuff, Earth would be a ball of fire right now. We wouldn’t have gotten advanced warning from Threx, if we hadn’t dealt with them so well.