Chapter 23

Eight species, each with its own style of warfare, could be thrown into the war against the Chitiniodians in a manner that optimized the psychological comfort of each. The Dactites with their hit and run mentality would give them quick hitting raiders. The aggressive Margot would give them a slowly advancing force. The territorial mindset of Omagrons would give them a defensive capability. It was not quite clear what the Dromat were doing besides building mines, but they didn't normally fight. The Andicors were happy being the bait in the traps being set for the aliens. The Engels were busy mass producing the weapons of war. The Gnord were trying to figure out where they fit into the entire effort. The Quatyl were still searching for additional space faring races.

The Humans were the odd ones in the entire mix. The Dromat described the Human involvement in very simple terms — the Humans were pretty good liars. There was nothing straightforward or logical about how the Humans approached the war. As Captain Beac described it, "It is hard for an enemy to figure out what you are doing when your allies are confused."

The entire brain trust was in the control room of a Quatyl Scout ship. The sensors showed that the ship was basically in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a lot of nothing. Chip said, "Let there be ships!"

Suddenly the sensors started registering the presence of two dozen ships. They were completely surrounded. James said, "You did it."

"Of course, I'm the Great Ploppertui," Chip said with pride in his work.

"That's pretty good," the Engel said.

Amazed by the demonstration, the Dromat said, "He not only deceives the eyes, he can deceive sensors too."

"Smoke and mirrors," Chip said.

"I didn't see any smoke," Cousin Itt said puzzled by the statement.

"It is an expression," James said.

"It is a confusing expression," Cousin Itt said. There were a lot of confusing things about these Humans. It seemed to him that the humans delighted in being confusing.

Although he had seen the sensors showing nothing, Captain Beac had not been fooled for a second. He said, "I knew the ships were there. I could sense the servant races on board."

"Oh," Chip said with a frown. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'm not sure that I can solve that problem."

"Is it a problem?" James asked looking around the table.

"I don't know," Chunky answered.

Captain Beac said, "We can sense, but can't control the Chitiniodians. I don't think they can sense other races."

The Dromat entered James' office carrying a mass of metal. Looking up at James, he asked, "Are you busy?"

"A little. I'm planning a dinner party for Admiral Murphy," James said although it would be difficult to say how what he was doing was in any way related to planning a dinner party. There were two ice buckets, a pitcher of water, and a water glass on the table.

Holding out the metal construction for James to inspect, Cousin Itt said, "Look at what we discovered."

It took James a couple of seconds to recognize the device. Shrugging his shoulders, he said, "It is a collapsible geodesic sphere."

"No. It is the most perfect arrangement of levers that I have ever encountered. It is even better than the umbrella," Cousin Itt said with obvious awe in his voice. He opened the sphere and then closed it down again. He shook in excitement.

"I'm glad you like it," James said raising an eyebrow. He had seen the same level of excitement when the Dromat had discovered the umbrella.

If the umbrella was a great weapon, then this had to be an even better one. Cousin Itt said, "It is a perfect weapon to use upon the enemy."

"How would we use it?" James asked getting interested in the conversation. Now that the talk had turned to something useful, he was ready to give him his full attention.

"It could be used to lie to the eyes like the lies that the Great Ploppertui creates. We fire it at them when it is big and then it gets smaller the closer it gets to them," Cousin Itt said while opening and closing the sphere. It was magical.

"Then what?" James asked somewhat puzzled.

"I don't know," Cousin Itt said. He looked at the construction and said, "Levers. It has levers connected to levers in a most amazing manner."

"I know," James said.

"It is a perfect arrangement of levers. It must do something that can help us defeat the enemy," Cousin Itt said feeling a little frustrated.

James said, "I'll think about it."

"Please do," Cousin Itt said.

James chuckled when a strange little idea came to mind. Looking over at Cousin Itt, he said, "You know, it would be funny if we had a ship that could change shape and move so that when it was fired upon it could dance around the missile. I bet that would drive them crazy."

Bowing to James, Cousin Itt said, "A most unique idea. I shall talk to the Dromat engineers and see what they think."

"Okay," James said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"This will be a most interesting project," Cousin Itt said as turned and left.

Starman looked over at James and commented, "A dancing space ship."

"Why not?" James asked.

"What kind of mind could come up with the idea of a dancing spaceship?" Starman asked.

"The mind of a genius," James answered. The slathern made a sound like it was choking. James said, "And now for another little demonstration of my brilliance."

James went back to work on his little project. He put an ice cube from one of the ice buckets in his glass and then stacked a number of other ice cubes from the other ice bucket atop it. He filled the glass with water and then sat back to watch. He started the count down, "Five four three two one zero minus one minus two minus three."

At minus three the ice cube at the bottom of the glass exploded. It pushed the ice cubes above it upwards along with the water in the glass. The result reminded James of a geyser going off. He grinned at the result. This was going to be a dinner that went down in history. He smiled and said, "And she only used a dribble glass on me!"

"She will get angry with you James," Starman said.

"Good. Then she'll fire me and I'll be free to raise Baby James or Baby Jamesina to have a good sense of humor," James replied.

"You are too valuable to fire. With you in charge, we now have a huge fleet and only two ships have even engaged the enemy," Starman said.

"Do you think I should use more frozen CO2 in the ice cubes? The explosion will be even more incredible," James said.

"You'll break the glass," Starman said.

James frowned as he thought about it and said, "That would definitely ruin the joke."

"That was interesting," James said after watching the battle unfold on the display.

Having watched so much destruction, Captain Beac felt physically ill. He said, "Interesting? That was terrifying."

"It was only a hundred and seventy-five ships," James replied. He had expected closer to two hundred ships this time.

Cousin Itt said, "They will send more ships next time."

"Yes. I would expect about a thousand ships. On second thought, it will probably be more like seven hundred and fifty ships. They should be here in..." James said waving his hands. He finally concluded, "Eight years."

Chunky closed his eyes while he thought through the arrivals of the next wave of the enemy. Using data taken from a computer that had been recovered in the last engagement, he had a pretty good idea of where the ships were located. He projected how long it would take that many ships to meet and then make their way here. He said, "You are right. We can expect them to show up in eight years. How did you know that?"

"It was a guess," James answered.

"How did you come up with that number?" Chunky asked staring at James.

"I don't know," James answered shrugging his shoulders.

Chunky was silent for a minute as he considered the answer. In was incomprehensible that James should come to the same answer as him without knowing how he did it. He asked, "You can't tell me how you came up with that number?"

"That's right," James answered ready to drop the topic of conversation.

"You can't do that," Chunky said staring at James. It shouldn't be possible to pick a number out of thin air like that without something to justify the answer.

"Why not?" James asked surprised by the statement.

Confused that James should even ask the question, Chunky said, "You can't come up with numbers like that without knowing how you came up with numbers like that."

"I do that all of the time," James said with a smile.

Chunky looked at the smile trying to figure out if it was a happy expression or an angry expression. After a minute he decided that it didn't matter what the smile meant. He looked over at the Quatyl and said, "I thought the Humans were slow thinkers."

"They are," Starman replied. "They just attack problems very differently than everyone else."

"I don't understand," Chunky said. He could visualize six dimensions and solve complex equations in his head, but he couldn't just guess a number like that. He could make estimates, but he knew how he arrived at the estimate.