Chapter 19

Scott's eyes were focussed on the tactical board as he swept into the room. The lights representing the missiles now appeared as an almost unbroken line heading inexorably towards the Earth. Another tight cluster of lights represented the cruisers and a final large grouping was obviously the mother ship.

The fact that he seemed relaxed enough to make a joke as he appeared somehow helped to relieve a little bit of the pressure and tension that was beginning to reach dangerously high levels in the room. Scott knew people could make silly mistakes under such strain and he had purposefully used a silly line when he had opened the door - 'what am I missing?'. The answer of course was deadly serious.

There were seven thousand missiles inbound, six hundred alien cruisers following closely behind and then there was the humungous ship that all of these had come from.

"XO, use the batteries on the moon to target the iLOX missiles, bring them down for me son!" ordered Admiral MacCulloch.

"Belay that order!" said Scott, "You might like the idea of a huge radioactive dust cloud over the Earth, Admiral, but I certainly don't. And just so that everybody knows, they're not iLOX, they're Lupos."

Scott didn't go on to explain his last statement, as he was still reviewing the tactical board, weighing up what to do next.

"AI, open a channel to the commander of the Lupos carrier please. Could you translate for me?" Scott asked.

It took a few moments for the connection to be made, as the Lupos commander rejected the request at first. His curiosity must have got the better of him however, and as the AI made repeated requests, eventually his head and shoulders appeared on one of the screens. For most of the crew in the Operations Room this was their first close up view of what the aliens looked like.

The commander wore a white uniform piped with blue flashing and gold epaulettes at the shoulder. The effect should have been impressive and would have been had it not been for the obvious stains all over the white tunic and the drooling, wolf-like neck and head that emerged from it. Behind him, the video-link picked up other crewmembers dressed in red and black uniforms.

"Commander, I am Scott mac Fergus, Ard Righ nan Albannach. You have already launched a number of unprovoked attacks on our planet, killing many innocent civilians with a heinous biological attack. Now you have launched a massive nuclear strike against the Earth. Am I to take it that we have annoyed the Lupos in some way and that we are at war?" Scott asked with a smile on his face.

On the screen the Lupos commander stood up, bared his teeth and snarled, drool flying from his mouth.

"What foolishness is this? This is no joke human! You should prepare to die, all of you. The Albannach are all long since dead and you will soon be joining them. We, the mighty iLOX, will see to that."

"I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you on all fronts Commander. Today isn't a good day to die and the Albannach are very much alive and flourishing. I know your race's history, how you bred with the iLOX and then betrayed them and were banished as they died. You're no more an iLOX than I am am. You're a stupid, hairy, Lupos. Admit it to yourself, you'll feel better," Scott purposely tried to rile his opponent while at the same time lighten the mood in his own Ops Room.

An angry opponent might become a careless opponent. He cut the transmission before the Lupos commander could respond.

"AI, do we have any drones above the carrier yet?" he asked in a much more business-like manner.

"Yes, your Grace," the Ai responded.

"Okay, seed some parasites on him, let's try to drop his shields and see how he feels when he's exposed. How long until missile impact?" Scott asked.

"Parasites are deploying now, your Grace. Missile impact now estimated in fifteen minutes," the AI replied.

"Okay, AI. Confirm none of our assets are in range and then initiate code Icarus. Use the odd numbered units first and then the even numbered ones if you need them. Ensure that half of the units are charged at all times," Scott ordered.

"Initiating code Icarus as ordered, your Grace."

Above the Earth the seven thousand missiles were closing at an incredible speed, each of them carrying twenty nuclear warheads. The Lupos cruisers were following at a somewhat slower speed, but were only three or four miles behind the missiles.

"Your Grace, the missiles and the cruisers have vanished!" cried the XO.

Everyone in the room stared at the tactical board to confirm with their own eyes that the lights representing the aliens had disappeared. Mac swung to look at Scott and spotted the huge satisfied grin on his face.

"What did you do? What's 'code Icarus'?" he asked.

"I had the Dalriada and the Fife accurately chart a number of stars for me. There are twenty booster jump reactors on platforms above us that have the co-ordinates for those suns locked in. The AI has just initiated a jump sequence that has sent the cruisers and the missiles directly into those stars. If the Lupos were lucky, death will have been instantaneous," Scott replied.

"Oh you sneaky, sneaky bastard. I love it, Icarus! They flew too close to the sun, brilliant!" Mac laughed aloud.

"Mac, how many times do I have to warn you about calling me names?" Scott replied, grinning still to show he was joking.

"You mean they're all gone, just like that?" asked the Admiral, still somewhat confused.

"Yes, Admiral. For the moment at least. We just have to deal with the beast that launched them. At least we've given our friend the commander something to think about," Scott answered.

"Your Grace, the smart-dust is picking up multiple inter-stellar jumps forming between Mars and ourselves. I have seven, I repeat, seven large ships, designated super-battleships according to the IFF," the AI advised.

"Oh shit, more of them!" groaned MacCulloch, "Wait a minute, did you just say 'IFF'?"

"Yes, Admiral. Your Grace, we are receiving a video-link request from the captain of the AS Inveraray, " said the AI.

"Put him through please, AI."

The head and shoulders of a man appeared on one of the screens. He appeared in all respects like a normal human wearing a pristine royal blue uniform. He had black hair and deep blue eyes. There was a blueish shadow of heavy growth evident around his face, a face that at this moment looked very determined.

"This is Captain James MacLaren of the Alban Ship Inveraray reporting for duty with our first fleet, your Grace. A tactical update would help enormously, sir - we're feeling a little blind up here," the man said.

"Well met indeed, Captain, and welcome to Earth. Your timing is impeccable, my compliments to you and your colleagues. I'm patching through feeds from our tactical systems and the smart-dust now. That should give you everything you need to catch up with things," Scott responded.

Scott ordered the AI to pass the tactical information to all of the newly arrived Alban ships so that they knew where the United States assets were and most importantly the location of the Lupos carrier.

"Captain, I need information on the capabilities of your fleet. Please upload that to our computers here. Keep your ships cloaked and on station for now. I want to offer our Lupos friends one last chance to retire, despite everything," Scott said.

The view of Captain MacLaren widened and some of the bridge of his super-battleship came into shot. The crew was moving about with quiet efficiency and Scott smiled as he noted several of them were clearly milky white iLOX. He also spotted several of the crew who looked almost like normal humans, but had incredibly pale skins, that gave him a clue as to what had happened in the intervening eleven hundred years on the planet Alban.

The arrival of the Alban ships had left everyone in the Ops Room stunned, including Mac and the Admiral. There had been no time for Scott to share the details of what had happened to him before he had returned with the USS Dalriada. The fact that he was taking the arrival of the ships in his stride gave Mac a clue that something had gone on that he wasn't yet aware of. He looked at Scott expectantly, waiting for some form of explanation. Scott caught his friend's look, but waved him off with a gesture that let Mac know he would share everything later.

"Your Grace, the parasites are nearing critical levels," the AI informed him.

Scott had almost forgotten about the parasites on the Lupos carrier. They seemed to have taken longer to reach critical than they had in the past and he wondered if this was something to do with the ship's size or whether the Lupos were aware of what was going on and were trying to take avoiding action. Either way, the little drains still seemed to have performed effectively.

"Her shields are going down now, your Grace, the parasites are dropping down onto the hull," the AI advised.

"Sweet Jesu! Look at the size of her," Scott said quietly, amazed at the sheer scale of the carrier.