Chapter 37
Shocking News
Evohn Cystrom’s neck was stiff and he had a throbbing headache. He’d been so distraught over the loss of New Age that he’d gone into another rage. Most of the crew had cleared the bridge when it started. Nobody wanted to provide him with a target. Only Lt. Lethrow stood his ground.
“So, what do we do now?” Lt. Lethrow asked. “If Earth’s Destiny was able to destroy New Age they will be after Relentless next, don’t you think?”
“Right. We better check in with Captain Spar and see what he’s doing to protect his cruiser. Prill?”
Specialist Prill rushed up. “Yes, sir..”
“Hail Captain Spar for me?”
He nodded. “Right away, Sir.” Prill went to his computer and punched in a code. Soon, Captain Spar’s image appeared on the main monitor. “Yes, Vice Admiral,” Captain Spar said. “What can I do for you?”
“Actually, it’s Admiral now,” Cystrom said. “Admiral Vin Lugart accidentally shot himself while cleaning his revolver.”
The Captain raised his eyebrows. “Really? How tragic.”
“Never mind that,” Cystrom said. “Have you heard from New Age lately?”
“No. She’s disappeared from our scanners. She was under attack from Earth’s Destiny, so I presume they destroyed her with their plasma cannon.”
“Yes, that’s our assessment, too. That’s why we’re calling. We believe you will be Earth’s Destiny’s next target.”
Captain Spar nodded. “Yes, she’s already after us. She’s appeared twice.”
“So, what are you doing to protect yourself?”
“We’re going FTL the moment she appears.”
“How is she able to follow you? Her scanners can’t be that good.”
“I don’t know, but they usually appear a few loons after we’ve relocated. Somehow they are tracking us.”
Cystrom took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He couldn’t figure out how Earth’s Destiny was able to follow their every move. It was like they had a tracking device on the ship.
“Is there any way you might be emitting a signal that they are picking up?” he asked.
“No, sir. I’ve checked. There’s no signal coming from our ship—Oh, skutz! There they are again.”
“Go FTL immediately. Don’t give them time to get a bead on you.”
“Going FTL now!” the Captain advised.
The screen went blank, and Cystrom shook his head angrily. “How are they tracking them? We’ve got to figure it out.”
“It could be the result of mathematical prediction,” Lt. Lethrow suggested. “Perhaps Captain Spar’s movements are not random.”
Cystrom looked at Lt. Lethrow thoughtfully. “That must be it. They’ve picked up a pattern and that pattern gives them the ability to predict his next move.”
“Right. And that would explain how they knew where to leave their fighters to attack New Age.”
“Oh, God no!” Cystrom exclaimed, gritting his teeth. “The fighters may be waiting for Relentless when it completes its jump. We’ve got to make contact with them. They must be warned.”
Lt. Lethrow sighed. “It may be too late. By the time they get our message they’ll be at their new position.”
“We’ve got to try. Prill. Hail Relentless!” Cystrom screamed.
Prill punched Relentless’s code into his computer. Static came from the main monitor, and then a dim image of Relentless’s bridge appeared.
“We’re under attack!” Captain Spar, barely visible in the dim light, yelled. “There are fighters everywhere, attacking from all directions. We can’t move; they’re as thick as bees on a hive.”
There was an explosion, and the image shook violently. The Captain grimaced as he listened to a report coming in on his communicator. “They did what? How did they get in?”
“What’s happening?” Cystrom screamed angrily.
“Two of our own fighters fired their missiles from inside the landing platform! There’s a fire raging and moving fast through the ship.”
“No! No! No! It can’t be!” Cystrom screamed, waving his arms wildly. “We can’t lose another attack cruiser!”
There was another explosion, followed by screams of pain and agony from crew members as fire engulfed the bridge. The image on the monitor flickered, turned to static, returned for a tik, and then went blank. Cystrom slammed his fist on the console in front of him, then stood up and stormed off the bridge.
Lt. Hanze looked at Lt. Lethrow and shook his head. “Why would our own pilots do that?” he asked.
“They wouldn’t. Somehow, enemy fighters must have gotten inside. I don’t know how, but that’s the only explanation. More importantly, that means Earth’s Destiny’s plasma cannon must not be working. If it were they would have used it.”
“So, that’s good news,” Lt Hanze said. “If they do confront us now it should be a fair fight.”
“Ship to ship, yes, but by my count we have a hell of a lot more fighters than they do. They couldn’t have too many left after two all-out assaults against our forces.”
Specialist Prill walked up. “I’ve got Commander Kulchz on the line,” he advised.
Lt. Lethrow jumped to his feet. “Okay, I’ll go get the admiral,” he said and rushed off.
A few loons later the admiral and Rupra Bruda arrived back on the bridge. Commander Kulchz’ image came up on the monitor.
“Yes, go ahead, Commander,” Admiral Cystrom said.
“Greetings, Admiral. I understand there has been a change in command.”
“Yes, I’m in charge now.”
“Very good, sir.”
“What’s the situation with OCE?”
“Well, I’m afraid there’s been a setback,” Kulchz said.
Evohn Cystrom stiffened. “What kind of setback?”
“President Rubio is dead.”
Admiral Cystrom turned red. “What! You said you could protect him!”
“I know. I had a dozen soldiers guarding him, but the fool choked on a piece of meat.”
“What? You’ve got to be joking. Tell me you’re joking.”
“No. It’s no joke. The idiot choked on a piece of steak.”
“Who was with him when it happened?”
“He was having dinner with a woman.”
“What woman?”
“I don’t know. A journalist, I think. She disappeared after it happened. It appears Rubio had Agent Hamilton of the Secret Service to sneak her down for dinner. I didn’t know anything about it,” he lied.
Lt. Lethrow’s eyes narrowed. “Do you have a picture of this woman?”
“Ah. Yes, the whole thing is on video. I haven’t had a chance to review it. I’ve been rather busy since they swore me in as president.”
“What?” Cystrom asked. “You are now President of the United States?”
“That’s my position since the entire cabinet resigned and I’m the only cabinet member Rubio had appointed. So, that left me next in line.”
“You mean the House and Senate had not appointed new leaders?”
“No, they hadn’t got around to it. It’s only been a few days since the assassinations.”
“Has anyone challenged you?”
“Yes, Congressman Milford is expected to be elected as Speaker of the House next week, and he’s in the process of taking the matter to the Supreme Court. He says my appointment as Secretary of Defense wasn’t legal because the Senate hadn’t approved the appointment. He may be right about that, but then that means nobody was eligible to be president when President Rubio died.”
Relief swept over Admiral Cystrom. “Excellent. That’s all the color of authority we need for now. Take control of the government, Mr. President. Use force if you have to. Kill anyone who opposes you. We can’t afford any more setbacks.”
“Yes, sir. I’m already in the process of doing that. That’s why I haven’t had time to review those tapes. . . . Here, I’ve been given the foot
age showing Rubio’s death. I’ll put it up on your monitor.”
The monitor went dead briefly, and then the image of a small room appeared with a table set for an intimate dinner. The President came in and took a seat. A woman sat across from him but her face couldn’t be seen. They began to eat and then the woman got up, walked around the table, and sat in the President’s lap. They kissed for a long moment, and then the president began to cough and convulse. The woman bent over him, and it looked like she was trying to help. Then she screamed and turned toward the door. As she turned her face became visible. Admiral Cystrom gasped. “It can’t be. No! It can’t be,” he screamed.
“Is that Aerial Muri?” Commander Kulchz asked in shock.
“I’m afraid it is,” Lt. Lethrow replied. “She stole a fighter and deserted yesterday.”
“That means she found Captain Shilling and Peter Turner.”
“Yes, so they must be behind this,” Lt. Lethrow said.
“So, Peter Turner is still alive?” Admiral Cystrom asked angrily.
“Yes, I’m afraid so,” Kulchz admitted. “I’ve had an entire platoon out trying to kill him, but he’s very elusive.”
“We must find him and kill him now. Tell the FBI that he is responsible for President Rubio’s assassination. Tell them Aerial Muri was his accomplice. Perhaps the FBI can track him down and kill him.”
“They won’t kill him. They’ll just take him into custody.”
“Either way, he’ll be out of our way.”
“Right. I’ll take care of it.”
“Good. Now how do you assess your current situation?” Cystrom asked.
“A lot of people won’t like the way I became president. My appointment as Secretary of Defense didn’t go over too well with the media and Congress. I don’t know if my appointment would have been approved. As I said, the new Speaker of the House is contesting the legality of my presidency. He’s taking the matter to the Supreme Court.”
“No courts!” Admiral Cystrom insisted. “Once we take control we won’t relinquish it under any circumstances. If you need a show of force we can certainly provide it. This is no time for weakness.”
“What about the attack cruisers you’ve lost? Will you—”
“Don’t worry about the attack cruisers. You’ll have the support you need.”
“Yes, sir,” Kulchz said. “I must go now. I’m in the process of appointing my cabinet. I need to move fast to consolidate my power.”
“Go, and may God be with you,” Admiral Cystrom said and cut off the communications link.
“That was a stroke of luck that Kulchz succeeded to the presidency,” Lt. Lethrow noted.
“Yes, perhaps our luck is changing,” the admiral said. “It seemed for a while there that everything we’d planned for so long was going wrong. Now all we have to do is get rid of Peter Turner and Earth’s Destiny, and OCE will be sure to succeed!”
“Oh, speaking of Earth’s Destiny,” Lt. Lethrow said. “I’m pretty sure its plasma cannon isn’t working.”
“How do you know that?” Admiral Cystrom asked.
Lt. Lethrow explained his reasoning. Admiral Cystrom smiled.
“Excellent. Then we can confront Earth’s Destiny and destroy it.”
“We should be able to,” Lt. Lethrow agreed. “We definitely have more fighters. But we need something more. As it is, we could fire missiles at her all day long but her ionic shields will render them ineffective. I was thinking of putting some fighters on autopilot and setting them on a collision course with Earth’s Destiny. The ionic shield will nullify their electronics but it won’t change their natural trajectory.”
“Won’t they just destroy the planes with their lasers?” Admiral Cystrom asked.
“One or two maybe, but if we send fifteen or twenty at them they may miss one or two. The resulting collisions might breach the hull.”
“It’s worth a try, I guess. Is there any way we could still launch missiles after the fighters went through the ionic shield? If the electronic components were turned off when they went through the shield, they wouldn’t be damaged and could be turned back on remotely, perhaps. Then the missiles could be launched point-blank at Earth’s Destiny.”
“That’s an interesting idea,” Lt. Lethrow said. “I’ll look into its feasibility.”
While Lt. Lethrow went off to find the chief engineer to discuss the admiral’s ideas, Evohn Cystrom went to see Rupra Bruda to fill him in on the latest developments on Earth. He felt confident now that everything would turn out fine for them. They’d managed to take control of the U.S. government peacefully, and that had been a key element of OCE. Now the primary task was to crush any opposition before any substantial resistance could be organized. To do that, however, they needed to find and kill Peter Turner and destroy Earth’s Destiny. Evohn felt confident they’d find a way to do that, and then he could fulfill his pledge to build the perfect world as envisioned by the great Purist leaders, Videl Lai and Rupra Bruda.