A Twist of Destiny Bk. 02

"Cut the tether," I instructed. "Good luck, Tommy. We'll hold them off if we can."

"You better! Leviathan out."

"Helm," I said coolly after consulting the small tactical display on my chair's armrest, "come about. Heading two-five-four-point-oh-two by six-one. One quarter impulse speed. When we're sure they've got our scent, amuse yourself as long as we steer clear of Tommy."

"Aye, sir," Grace replied.

Seconds later, we were leading the six Horde ships away from Leviathan's position. I told the tactical holo-officer to "play" with our enemy in order to keep them engaged and distracted enough so as not to notice what Leviathan was doing. We looped and swooped around the ice moon as it hurtled through space, taking light hits on our aft quarters that did no damage.

"She's good," Aventine said appraisingly. "Much better than I would be."

I smiled proudly. "That's my girl," I said.

"Is she really your daughter?" she asked.

I looked up at Aventine but said nothing at first. "We saw each other's lives with the help of the Kholain. You all know about my family."

"Your daughter Holly," Aventine said after a moment of thought. "So Grace is from the future?"

I shrugged. "Not exactly, no. She spent some time there, though. Would you believe me if I told you that she was conceived earlier today?"

Aventine didn't miss a beat. "Coming from anyone else, David, I'd be skeptical. But since it's you, I'm just curious."

I motioned for her to lean in closer. When her ear was inches from mine, I whispered, "You know how I can turn myself into a fully-functioning hermaphrodite? Do the math."

Aventine stood back up, her spine erect, but her eyes didn't turn away from me. She just stared at me with something that was a mixture of awe and disbelief. After a moment, all she could say was, "Wow. Well... welcome to motherhood."

"Speaking of which," I replied, "how was the delivery? Is the baby okay?"

Aventine positively glowed with pride. "Everything went fine, thank you. And he's perfectly healthy. We couldn't be happier."

"Sir! The second wave of Horde ships are powering up their weapons!" Ops said with surprise.

"I thought you said that they had minimal armaments," I replied, sitting forward a little bit with alarm. Aventine stepped away and focused on the screen.

"I did, sir. These aren't energy-based weapons. They're priming what boils down to magnetic rail guns. Sir, they're firing at the ice moon!"

"Status report on Leviathan!" I snapped. "Is he in any danger?"

"Negative, sir. Their targets are nowhere near him. But it seems like their intention is to break the moon up into large pieces. I'm detecting fractures and disruptions all across the moon's surface. If they keep bombarding it, it will disintegrate, sir."

"Leviathan to Athena. What the hell are they doing?"

"They're giving you a helping hand by trying to break it up, Tommy," I answered.

"Why in the hell would they do that?!"

"My guess is that they want to make Earth's demise as slow and painful as possible. They're evil that way. Are you having any success?"

"Some, yeah. Well, I was until they broke my concentration. Their shooting at the big chunks while I'm trying to control them will make things more difficult for me."

"Understood, Tommy. I'll see if we can convince them to take a break." I looked at the Tactical holo-officer. "It's time to get a little heavy-handed with these people. Target the ships that are firing on the moon. See if you can disable them."

"Yes, sir. Helm, please get us closer to those ships."

"Moving," Grace said confidently.

The view on the main screen shifted until we saw the offending ships in the distance, but we were getting closer by the second. When we got into range, our pulse cannons opened fire on the inferior vessels and, one by one, they were rendered helpless and adrift.

"We may have been too late, sir," Ops reported. "The moon is cracking up. Significant debris is breaking free of the main body and the fissures are getting wider. We're also nearing a band of radiation, which will probably destabilize the moon even more."

"How soon until we reach the radiation band?" I asked. "And how would it affect Leviathan?"

"He is sufficiently shielded in his suit. It should not harm him at all, sir. We will reach the band in two minutes, nineteen seconds."

"Open a channel to Leviathan. Tommy? Things are going to get pretty bumpy for you in a minute or two. We're heading into a radiation band. The moon sustained too much damage and the radiation will probably cause it to break up completely. What's your status?"

"I'm honestly having the damnedest time here, Boss," he replied with annoyance. "I can feel the water in there wanting to obey me, but it doesn't seem to respond. I hate to say it, but maybe breaking it up more might help."

"Stick with it, Tommy. If there's anything we can do to help, just say the word."

"Just keep those tractor beams ready."

I glanced at the Ops holo-officer and he gave me a slow nod. "We'll sure as hell try," I said. "Try to make it look as natural as possible. We don't want the Horde ships to realize you're out there."

"Roger that. Wups! It's breaking apart now, I can see it. There's the world's biggest fault line developing down on the surface like it's coming apart at the seams. I see four, no, seven distinct sections from my vantage point."

The Ops holo-officer piped up. "There are thirteen individual segments. We have entered the radiation band and will exit it in approximately twelve minutes. While we are in the band we will not be able to use the transporters."

"You hear that, Tommy? For the next twelve mikes you're swinging solo out there. Don't draw any attention to yourself if you can help it."

"Understood, Boss. Hey, would you look at that? I can control these things better in chunks. Okay. I'm gonna start bashing things up a bit and you drag off whatever you can."

"Sir," the Tactical officer interrupted, "the third wave of Horde ships are moving towards us. Three of them seem to have targeted us but the other three are targeting the debris."

I nodded. "Now that it's breaking up, they're going to try and melt some of it down in the hopes that it will re-crystallize into more aerodynamic projectiles. Clever. If they enter Earth's atmosphere in that kind of configuration, it'll cause more damage more quickly. Let's not allow that, shall we? Disarm them. Kill their engines, too, if you can."

"Yes, sir," Tactical said eagerly and began to run his holographic fingers across the control panel in front of him. As Grace flew the Athena into the Horde formation, our weapons lanced out and struck each ship with pin-point precision. "Leviathan appears to be making some significant headway on his mission," Ops reported. "There were thirteen original chunks of ice. Now there are thirty-seven. We can move each piece with our tractor beams to a safer trajectory in plenty of time."

"Good," I said with satisfaction. "Let's attend to these Horde ships and then beam Leviathan back aboard the ship when we get out of the radiation band."

"Sir!" Tactical cried out. "One of the ships from the first wave has reconstituted itself and is joining the fight from our flank. Its weapons are hot but not trained on us, sir. They're targeting the space around- they're firing, sir!"

"Ops!" I shouted. "Get a lock on Leviathan and beam him aboard now!"

"I can't, sir! The radiation band is creating too much interference. I can't get... the telemetry from his EVA suit has ceased, sir."

I leaned back in my chair in stunned shock. "He's... dead?"

The Ops holo-officer consulted his console quickly and shook his head. "Not at the moment, sir. We can't read his bio-signature, but the larger pieces of ice are still moving in an unnatural manner. He's still controlling them. He's being obvious about it now, sir. Now counting forty-three individual pieces small enough for us to maneuver. The... he's stopped, sir."

"Those motherfuckers!" Tank shouted, making the ship rumble with his rage.

Aventine sat down heavily in an empty chair and shook her head with sorrow. "Oh, Tommy..."

I closed my eyes and took a deep, calming breath. My heart was breaking, but it was not the time for grief. That would come later. I opened my eyes again and nodded with a frown. "How much time do we have until the pieces are a threat to Earth?"

"Six hours and forty-nine minutes, sir."

"How long will it take for us to move them on a safe trajectory?"

"Two hours, sir."

I took a deep breath. "I'm through fucking around with these assholes. Break off from the debris. Grace, fly us as close as you can to each of those Horde ships, one after the other. Tank, when we get close enough to a ship, I want you to play hell with its gravitational field. Artificial or not, gravity is still gravity. I want those things to resemble crushed soda cans by the time we're done."

"You got it," Tank growled through clenched teeth, his anger at Leviathan's death evident.

We all watched the screen as Grace brought our ship within a few meters of each of the Horde ships, one by one. Within seconds of "parking" beside each vessel, Tank used his ability exactly as I'd instructed and crushed them all into tight balls of twisted, compacted metal. We came to the eighteenth ship and I stood.

"No. Wait. One. I want one Horde ship left intact. Disable it completely. Hell, vent its atmosphere for all I care, but I want its computer core intact. Once we locate their computer core, I want it beamed aboard and scanned. We're going to find out where these fucking bastards live."

"David," Aventine said gently, "revenge isn't the answer. They're horrible, yes, but we've got to set the higher standard. We averted their attack. That should teach them enough."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Who said anything about revenge?" I asked. "No, I have no intention of seeking revenge. All I want to do is send them an email."

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"Attention members and leaders of the species known as The Horde. I am Captain David Shayles, a human from the planet known as Earth. Your species recently sent out a fleet of eighteen ships to our solar system and attempted to hurtle a large celestial body directly at our homeworld. I am proud to inform you that your attempt failed. You sent eighteen ships and hundreds of thousands of crewmen. We not only defeated your invasion force, we destroyed all of them utterly using only one ship and we suffered the loss of only one life! We can make more ships like this one. We can make one that is far more powerful and devastating. Our imagination and skill when it comes to warfare is boundless. What do you think two such ships might do to your mighty civilization, I wonder?

"There is only one way to ensure that you never find out. Your species is hereby quarantined and confined to your home solar system. Your entire invasion fleet and all expeditionary forces are to return from all points in the galaxy to your base solar system immediately. You will no longer attack, enslave or otherwise cause harm to any other species in this galaxy. If I get even the slightest hint that you have not complied with these terms, I will return and I will erase your civilization from the universe. Your entire species will be relegated to nothing but a bad memory, a legend that parents will tell their children in order to scare them into going to sleep at night. I will hunt you down to the last being, if need be.

"Your reign of intergalactic terror is hereby over. If you wish to test me and my resolve, the consequences will be swift, dire and unforgettable. Until your species learns how to respect life you will be imprisoned amongst yourselves. I'd suggest that you start learning as soon as possible. Otherwise your future is going to be very lonely. You have two of your days to comply with this ultimatum. I will be monitoring you closely to ensure that you do comply. If you do not, may whatever God you believe in have mercy on your miserable, besotted souls."

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"It turns out, sir," I said to Major Alec Hannis as we sat in his office, twelve years before my younger self had even joined the U.S. Army, "that I didn't need two ships to get the job done after all. They tried, but they didn't stand a chance." ---------------------------------

"Grace, my love," I said to my daughter on her twenty-first birthday as we lay in our bed, "if you want to make a child in the same way that you were created, you're welcome to it."

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"For over two hundred years you have protected Humanity and helped it through its most painful growing pains. Now it is finally entering the intergalactic community on its own merits, though your adventures and exploits have shown our potential to every species in the galaxy. You've even single-handedly created a whole new civilization using your own family as its base. But now you're retiring. Is there anything you want to say to the civilized galaxy before you hang it up?"

"Sure," I said while Grace and Kathy smiled serenely from each side of me and the cameras focused on us. "I'm retiring, but there's a legacy that I'm leaving behind. The Guardians will always be there."