Chapter 19

There are occasions when new management does exactly the right thing on taking over an organization. In particular, they don't make any changes to an organization that is functioning perfectly well. James decided early on that he didn't know enough to make any changes. His strategy for getting through this job was to sit back and say nothing. To cover his ignorance, he had Ken and Kim transferred under his command for the sole purpose of explaining what was going on around him. So far, he was pretty impressed with what everyone was doing.

Captain Alberts pointed to a three dimensional holographic model of the solar system. He said, "According to the computer information that we have, the Chitiniodians will be coming from this region of the galaxy. We'll have a few fleets probing our region of space initially, but the number of ships and the frequency of attacks will increase the longer the war lasts. We can expect the attacks to reach a level where we'll be facing as many as a hundred thousand ships at a time. The war will last as long as two hundred years."

So far the captain hadn't say anything that James didn't already know. He had watched all of the data captured in the computer. He had seen how the Chitiniodian and Boggum war had unfolded. Rather than say anything, James frowned and nodded his head thinking it made him look like a decisive decision maker.

Apparently James had done the right thing since Captain Alberts continued, "We have some time to build up our forces to a level where we can respond. For the moment, we are going to get a couple hundred ships from the Quatyl and outfit them so that we can protect our region of space. We'll put up a great wall of ships about twenty light years from Earth."

James was tempted to interrupt but he managed to control the desire. Considering that his frown and nod had worked the first time, he repeated it. Captain Alberts said, "We'll use the umbrella idea that worked during the first engagement. As far as we can tell, the original fleet didn't send out word that they had engaged our forces. The next fleet will have the same response as the first."

James was really tempted to speak out, but he didn't. Captain Anders took his silence as permission to speak. He said, "We've gotten some examples of their missiles and are in the process of reverse engineering them. We'll use their weapons against them while we are developing the next generation."

Reaching over to the pitcher of water, James concentrated on not saying a word. The whole wall of ships thing was just what the Boggums had done and they had lost their war. He poured a glass of water and took a sip thinking that the result would be the same with Chitiniodians growing their attacks until they overwhelmed the Earth forces.

From the far end of the table, Ken watched James thinking that he wasn't acting right. He frowned and looked at the model of the solar system. He didn't see anything wrong with the plans. It made perfect sense to him. On second thought, he realized the complete reasonableness of the plans would probably bother James a lot.

James fixed a frown on his face and nodded periodically while he daydreamed about how he would go about defending Earth. He could just see the whole first twenty years of the war play out in his mind. The Chitiniodians would arrive and find what appeared to be a very weak defense. They'd attack and lose because they weren't expecting the kind of response they would get. They'd send a few fleets finding that each time they were facing something different. They'd build up their attacks, but the Earth forces would have changed the nature of the war on them so that their superior numbers would actually hinder them. Each time the Chitiniodians came to engage the Earth forces expecting one thing, they'd get something completely different.

Captain Alberts asked, "So do we go ahead with our plans?"

Lost in his daydream, it took a few seconds for the question to reach his brain. James sat up and said, "No."

"What?" Captain Alberts asked rather surprised by answer. He'd had the feeling throughout the briefing that Admiral James Kamp had not been paying attention. He assumed that meant that the admiral would rubber stamp his plans.

"You're proposing the same thing that the Boggums did," James said.

"It was good military strategy. We have some advantages that they didn't have. We have eight space faring races to help us," Captain Alberts replied crossing his arms.

"We don't want to do the same thing the Boggums did. They lost," James said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"So what do you think we should do?" Ken asked recognizing the look on James' face. He had an idea that this was going to be good.

James pointed to the holographic model wishing that he had some controls that would allow him to change the display. He said, "At twenty light years from Earth, we will station six ships. We'll put one where you, you, you, and you are sitting with one above and one below the table. Well build a second perimeter at ten light years from Earth with six ships slightly offset from the initial perimeter."

"That won't give us much coverage," Captain Alberts said with a frown. Half of the ships were on the wrong side of the solar system to provide any protection. The quicker he could shoot down Admiral Kamp's idea, the sooner they could get to work protecting the solar system.

"We don't need coverage. They're going to be looking for our ships. We just have to make sure they find the ships that we want found. That means that the forward ships have to be visible from a long way away. The Chitiniodians will attack the first ship they see. Your job is to make sure that it is the last ship they see," James said.

"But that's not a defense," Captain Alberts said. He hated dealing with amateurs and, considering the conditions under which James had been promoted to Admiral, James was definitely an amateur. He said, "A defense requires fortifications, several lines of engagement, and more than enough force to repel the enemy."

"Sure it is. We've got all of that if we do it my way. We have a forward line of six ships and a second line of six ships. The whole time their fleets are occupied with our forward positions, we're building up a fleet to achieve an overwhelming force that is capable of destroying them," James said. He didn't want to point out that there was no repelling the enemy. They would fight to the last ship and then send some more.

"What ships will we use?" Captain Anders asked.

"Our star ships that my uncle is building with the shields from the Andicors. Your job is to figure out how to kill their missiles while they are trying to burrow through the shields," James answered.

He might not know how the Chitiniodian missiles worked, but he knew how to destroy them. Captain Anders replied, "That's easy. We cut them apart with lasers. The shields stop physical objects, not electromagnetic radiation."

"Clever," James said.

"We'll still use the same arrangement of umbrellas, won't we?" Captain Anders asked.

Captain Alberts was staring at the display feeling a little depressed that all of his work had been dismissed so easily. The sad thing is that James' plan was brilliant in a way. He could see how it would work.

"I guess we could. I'd like to replace the cannons that formed the handle of the umbrella with missile launchers. We'll still have the nukes, but I'd like to use them as a weapon of last resort. I want to keep them in reserve," James answered. He realized that if the Chitiniodian ships weren't shielded against nukes, then when the huge forces came out the nukes could be released as a surprise weapon. The nukes would be a huge surprise in the midst of a major battle. The 50mm weapons would be great when there were a whole lot of ships all firing at once with their shields down.

"That sounds doable to me," Captain Anders said.

James smiled and said, "Are we in agreement?"

"Yes," Captain Anders answered.

"Yes," Captain Alberts said. He wondered how long James had been thinking up that strategy. He'd have been upset if he had known that James had dreamed it up while he had been presenting his strategy.

Hunter Fleet Captain one click-one thrum-one click (1c1t1c) approached the alien ship fully confident that he'd get a kill. It would be his sixth as a Captain of the fleet. He parked his fleet a tenth of a light second from the alien craft and executed the standard sensor sweep. There was the one space ship and a bunch of debris around it. He commented to one of the Lieutenants, "They are a filthy species. Look at all of the junk here."

"There does seem to be a lot of junk here," the Lieutenant replied. It had to be space junk because the debris was randomly distributed across the entire volume of space.

"We'll just add a little more to it," Captain 1c1t1c said. He ordered, "Fire three missiles at the ship."

There was the reassuring hum as the three missiles were launched. The missiles hit the shield of the alien ship and then died. Confused, he leaned forward and clicked, "Nothing happened."

Worried, the Lieutenant said, "The space junk appears to be moving."

Captain 1c1t1c sat back and stared at the screen. The debris was too small to be space ships. He was about to order another volley of missiles to be fired when the screen showed the sudden presence of a hundred huge electromagnetic signatures surrounding his fleet. Concerned, he ordered, "All ships open fire."

James sat in the command center watching the battle unfold. He would be lying if he were to say that his asshole hadn't tried to suck the seat up his butt when the Chitiniodians had fired upon the ship he was in. Despite his concerns, he did try to show complete confidence in the defenses of the ship. They had tested the defenses several times and everything had worked like advertised. Still, it was a lot different to be sitting inside the ship when it was fired upon.

He turned to Captain Madison, an Andicor, and, in barely passable Dromat, said, "Open the umbrellas."

"Yes, sir," Captain Madison answered using the clicks that were normal to his species.

Having heard Andicor make that specific sequence of clicks on numerous occasions, James understood the reply. He stroked Starman's back. Seated on James' lap, Starman looked up at him surprised at how well James had managed the command. If his heart hadn't been beating so fast, he would have used the Slathern to say something. It was taking everything he had to remain conscious. Quatyl weren't meant to be in the middle of battle, but his presence as translator was necessary.

James looked over at Captain Anders and noticed that the man looked ashen gray. Concerned, he asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes, sir," Captain Anders said as calmly as he could. They might have faith in his ability to deliver technology that worked, but he didn't. He knew everything that could go wrong. It dawned on him that that might be the reason he was there.

The Chitiniodians fired a wave of missiles. It was directed at the umbrellas. Before the missiles reached the umbrellas, James said in Dromat, "Return fire."

"Yes, sir," Captain Madison replied using the clicks. He waved one of his appendages to the weapons specialist.

Just as the missiles tore through the thin metal foil without exploding, a hundred re-engineered alien missiles flew towards the Chitiniodian fleet. From the perspective of the Chitiniodian fleet it actually looked like their missiles had turned around and flew back at them. It was purely unintentional on defender's part, but even James had to admit that it was a pretty interesting effect.

A few seconds later, the battle was over when the Chitiniodian fleet exploded. James looked over at Captain Anders and said, "That was rather anti-climatic, wasn't it?"

"Yes, sir," the man answered. He wondered what would be required to get a transfer. Others might be happy getting shot at on a battle field, but he was perfectly content riding a desk.