Chapter 28

Admiral 2c1b2t had decided that his fleet needed to change tactics a little. Part of the reason was the result of long conversations with Lord 3b. Months of analyzing the recordings of past battles had convinced them that the aliens had a kind of ship that could reflect missiles back at their origin. Lord 3b had declared that those ships were a new class of ships that he called reflectors.

Following the advice of Lord 3b, Admiral 2c1b2t had issued orders that the ships in his fleet were not to fire upon reflectors. They were to concentrate their fire upon the other ships in the area. Only after the other ships were destroyed were they to study the reflectors and try to destroy them.

Despite the fact that it was a huge number of ships going against a single ship sitting out in space, Admiral 2c1b2t knew that this was going to be a pivotal engagement with the aliens. Even Lord 3b was going to monitor the battle in real time. Watching the sensors, he gave the order, "Slow to fighting speed."

The huge fleet came to a halt. As they expected, hundreds of reflectors suddenly appeared on the scene. He said, "Scan the area."

As soon as the scans started, the original ship just disappeared from the screen. Puzzled, he said, "Scan for that original ship again."

One of the crew said, "It is gone."

"What do you mean it is gone?" Admiral 2c1b2t asked.

"It just disappeared. One click it was there and the next it was gone," the sensor specialist answered.

"Did you track it?" Admiral 2c1b2t asked.

"It just disappeared," the sensor specialist answered. Their sensors should have been able to track it when it left, but there was nothing.

Deciding that it was a mystery that could be solved after the battle, Admiral 2c1b2t said, "Scan the reflectors and find their weak spot."

"Uh, they just fired upon the hunter fleets," the sensor specialist said staring at the screen.

"That's impossible. They are reflectors," Admiral 2c1b2t said not believing what the screens were showing. Everything they knew about the reflector class ships told them that they sent any missiles fired at them back to their source.

As the hunter fleets disappeared from the screen, the sensor specialist said, "The hunter fleets have been destroyed."

From the bridge of his command ship Lord 3b had watched the engagement. His shock at the exchange mirrored that of Admiral 2c1b2t. He used his communications channel to order, "Have your planet busters attack the reflectors now."

Admiral 2c1b2t ordered, "All ships attack the reflectors now."

The planet busters lowered their shields to fire upon the reflectors. Even as the ships prepared to fire, they started falling apart. From a good distance back from the actual site of the battle, Admiral 2c1b2t watched as eighty of his planet busters died for no apparent reason. Angry, he slammed his claw into the armrest of his chair. Unfortunately, his aim was a little off and the armrest deflected his claw into his leg. He let loose with a very loud bellow.

Lord 3b said, "This is impossible."

Admiral 2c1b2t said, "Fire upon those reflectors."

Making a decision that was unprecedented in the history of the Chitiniodians, Lord 3b ordered, "Flee."

"No," Admiral 2c1b2t said. Chitiniodians did not flee from a battle. He turned to his crew and said, "Put the shields on maximum and ram those ships."

Furious at having his order disobeyed, Lord 3b watched the battle evolve until the transmissions suddenly cut off. He turned to his chamberlain and said, "Admiral 2c1b2t is lucky he died. I would have killed him slowly for disobeying an order."

"Yes, sir," the chamberlain said. He wasn't going to say that he was shocked at the order to flee and understood exactly why the Admiral had disobeyed it.

Lord 3b sat back and said, "I probably would have done the same thing, though."

"Yes, sir," the chamberlain said.

"Other Lords will criticize my command," Lord 3b said. He had hoped that this would turn into a war like that against the Boggums. It was obvious by this battle that they were facing an alien force that was more dangerous than the Boggums.

"You know the other Lords far better than I," the chamberlain said knowing that Lord 3b was going to get raked over the coals for his order to flee.

"We needed to study the raw sensor feeds to know what happened. Now they are lost to us," Lord 3b said staring at the blank screen. An entire navy had been defeated and not a single alien ship had been destroyed.

"It was a wise decision on your part," the chamberlain said.

James watched the battle surrounded by the members of his think tank. Shaking his head, he said, "That was interesting."

"Yes, it was," Cousin Itt said. He had been surprised by how long the aliens had sat there after the battle star had disappeared. It was as if they didn't know what to do.

"I didn't expect them to attempt to ram the umbrellas," James said frowning.

Cousin Itt said, "That was most unexpected."

Captain Alberts said, "That was an old naval tactic. In fact, there were entire navies that operated using that tactic long before there were cannon."

James looked over at Cousin Itt and said, "It wouldn't be a bad idea to give them something to ram."

The Dromat said, "I have an idea on a different way to use our new mine."

"Great," James said.

"It is going to be great," Cousin Itt said feeling happy that the collapsible geodesic sphere would play a role in defeating the alien invaders. He said, "A lever is a lever."

"That's true," James said nodding his head in agreement. He understood perfectly what the Dromat meant.

"So what is going to happen next?" Captain Beac asked.

James answered, "For the next couple of years, we're going to have a handful of their fleets arrive to test out our capabilities. I would estimate that in about seven years time, we're going to get hit with several thousand ships."

Cousin Itt closed his eyes trying to imagine it. There just wasn't enough data to support that kind of statement concerning the timing and size of the next major attack. Giving up, he said, "I can't say one way or the other."

"That's okay. We'll find one or two of their computers out there and see what the current distribution of the alien fleet looks like," James said.

"How do you want to deal with the probing attacks?" Captain Alberts asked.

"Let's advance our position by twenty light years and use the Dactites against them," James said with a smile.

"Why?" Fixit asked. It wasn't that he was worried about engaging the aliens, but he was surprised that James would use them against the probing attacks. He kind of liked the idea of a thousand of them going against seven or fourteen of the alien ships.

"I want them to think that we've been defeated by a different group of aliens," James said.

The entire brain trust turned to stare at James. Seeing that he had everyone's attention, he said, "In fact, I think that about the time the second probing attack arrives that we should have the Dactites destroy our little battle star and a bunch of umbrellas. Let them watch the battle as they approach. When they arrive, we'll have the Dactities attack the aliens."

Unable to believe what he was hearing, the Andicor Captain said, "You're going to have the Dactites to kill us?"

"You won't be on board the ship. It will be empty," James replied waving a hand dismissively.

"Oh, that's better."

Captain Alberts asked, "What is that going to do for us in the long run?"

"They won't be expecting it," James answered. They would arrive expecting one enemy and discover that they were fighting another. Later, they would suddenly find themselves fighting the combined forces.

Starman asked, "Does anyone know how to spot James at a cock fight?"

None of the aliens at the table even understood the question. The humans turned to look at the Quatyl wondering what that question had to do with anything. Finally, Captain Alberts answered, "No."

"He's the one with the duck," Starman said.

James burst out laughing. It was the first time that he had heard Starman tell a joke. He said, "They'll never expect to be fighting my duck."

"What is a cock fight?" Cousin Itt answered totally baffled by the exchange.

Equally baffled, Chunky asked, "What is a duck?"

Captain Anders stared at Starman and said, "You've been around James way too long."

"Sad, isn't it," Starman replied.

Admiral 2c1b2t limped around the room in which he was being kept prisoner. All that he remembered of the end of the battle was the rear of his ship getting destroyed by five missiles. The hatches had sealed and the bridge of the ship had been cast adrift. That had been followed by the long slow depletion of atmosphere and a loss of consciousness. He had regained consciousness in this cell. It was a miracle that he was even alive.

He looked over at his aide and asked, "Where do you think we are?"

"I don't know, sir," the aide answered tiredly. It had to be the hundredth time the Admiral had asked that question.

"This must be some sort of facility that they use to store food," Admiral 2c1b2t said. As far as he could tell, there was no other reason to keep them alive. They killed aliens as soon as they saw them.

"I wish you would quit saying that, sir," the aide said in an irritated voice. He didn't like the idea of becoming someone's meal.

"Don't get grouchy," Admiral 2c1b2t said.

"I'm hungry," the aide said.

"We're in a serious situation here and all you can think about is your stomach," Admiral 2c1b2t said looking over at his aide. It seemed to him that you never knew someone until things were bad.

"There is nothing for us to do, so I think about my stomach," the aide said. By Chitiniodian standards, he was a fat little fellow and thought about his stomach a lot.

One of the walls turned transparent. Admiral 2c1b2t and his aide turned to look at it. A wave of disgust at the pink rubbery looking alien washed through their bodies. Admiral 2c1b2t was convinced that no one had ever seen a life form so disgusting in appearance.

James looked at the aliens through the bullet proof glass. He smiled and waved at them. The one with a limp rushed forward and attacked the glass. James frowned and shook his head. He shook a finger at the alien and said, "Bad little alien."

Admiral 2c1b2t was shocked at hearing the alien speak his language. He looked over at his aide and asked, "Did he just say that I was a bad little alien?"

"Yes, sir. That is what it sounded like to me," the aide answered just as surprised. There was no way that a rubbery creature like that should be able to make the clicks, bellows, thrums, and whistles of a Chitiniodian.

"Ugly thing, isn't it?" Admiral 2c1b2t said backing away from the glass.

"Yes, sir. It is quite disgusting in appearance," the aide said in honest agreement with the admiral.