stretches across the galaxy. Several of your fellow Senators were taken into custody this morning. Half are no longer with us. What is being called a terrorist attack happened a few hours ago. Armed men and women attacked the convoy and set it ablaze with incendiary devices. All the prisoners inside were killed. Fortunately only half were aboard the transports. The terrorists killed themselves rather than be captured. So you see why I am loath to inform the Assembly of my every move.”
“Primus, are we in danger?”
“You personally or our planet? You most likely are not unless you’re a Cabal agent?” The woman cringed and tried to hide herself. “Our planet then. We still have a tech edge over most of the galaxy. Our Navy can and will protect us. As will our allies.”
A loud siren began to sound and lights began flashing in Amalie’s office. Across the planet similar alarms were sounding on every military and civil defense outpost. “Oh good. It seems that we were correct. Our new guests have arrived.”
“Primus, what is happening?” All around the room all but a few Senators were looking around confused. “That Senator Cerin is a special alarm. A few of you understand its significance. It’s the Earth alarm. Something has entered our space from that direction. If you have shelters, now would be the time to go to them.” She hit a button on the console cutting communication to all the screens.
“Come along dear heart. Let’s see what Earth has sent us, shall we.” She pulled me into a doorway that was not there a moment ago.
“How many passages does this place have?”
“How many is too many? I will show them to you, eventually. Come along dear.” The hallway was long and except for the light at the end of the tunnel, very dark. The light was a small, well lit room with another door. Amalie opened it and stepped into the Central Command Center for the planet.
“Admiral, report!”
“Primus, good. I see you brought your granddaughter too. Here is what we know. Shortly after your speech the frontier forts all came to life visibly. Small ships were seen leaving them and heading toward Earth. Our long distance scopes have detected an extremely large ship on course for Mars. If I didn’t see it on the scope moving toward us, I would have mistaken it for a station of some sort. It must be the largest ship other than a colony ship ever built.”
“Admiral, our intel showed that the Cabal was a front for the UN. I broadcast my speech using the old interstellar communicator. It seems that we were right. There is no such thing as a coincidence here. They heard us. Where do we stand with our Navy?”
The Admiral smiled. “Our patrol craft are inbound along with five flights of star fighters. The Ghost fleet has been activated and are powering up now. Orbital defenses are manned and ready. Here on the ground, notices have gone out and civil defense networks are locking down. Shields are up and we are locked in as well.”
“Excellent work Admiral. Tell your people that I am proud of them. It is time to see if a century of hard work and planning will now pay off. You may give the order when ready.”
“Ma’am, my entire Naval career has been building to this point in time. I hoped that I would never have to utter these words or that the UN was gone and buried as rumor would have it. Attention all stations. This is an Alpha codeword event. I repeat Alpha codeword. Checkmate is a go. I repeat Checkmate is a go. May the gods go with us.”
Chapter 12
The very young looking Captain's name was Alpha 364. He stared out at the blue and green covered marble and watched as flights of star fighters fought mock skirmishes and patrolled around his ship. The Colossus was the first of its kind. Except for the last batch of colony ships built over a hundred years before, it was the largest ship in space today. The design