PHALANX - The series

Episode three : changes.

 

"How many are there?" Frederic gasped to no-one in particular.

 "344 small ships, 5 carriers and 5 ships that can be loosely described as 'battleships' " Daphnix said.

"Open a frequency. Hurry!" Frederic shouted at Harris.

"Open." The Scot's voice trembled a little, indicating he was not entirely in control of himself.

"This is Phalanx Fromthefield of the human race. Power down and turn around. We want an end to these hostile actions."

Frederic motioned for Harris to break the connection, after five seconds of fruitless waiting.

"The smaller ships are powering weapons and they are moving into an attack pattern." Daphnix reported from his station.

Frederic pressed the intercom.

"We are challenged by a superior force. All non-essential personnel is to report to quarters and focus their mental strength on the shields."

"Shield strength at 110% and climbing." Daphnix reported.

"Good. Get a firing solution on the enemy. Preferably 10 torpedoes per ship." Frederic ordered. Daphnix nodded and got to work.

"Jennifer, any weaknesses we could use against them?" he asked.

"None, sir. Our sensors can't penetrate their shields."

"Damn. Where is that firing solution?"

"Working on it, sir. They are preparing to fire. Shield strength currently at 185% and holding."

The 344 smaller ships broke out of formation and blasted at 3/4 lightspeed towards the station. At the last possible moment, they broke out with energy beams and torpedoes. The command center rocked back and forth under the massive barrage the ships unleashed.

"Shields down to 70%. Minor hull damage on decks 9,10 and 11. Sir, we have a firing solution."

"Fire torpedoes. Use phasers to keep them from firing at us again."

The massive command center unleashed the incredible amount of fire-power stored in it. Each of the 25 torpedo tubes launched 20 torpedoes, it's maximal capacity. Thanks to Frederic's and Daphnix's programming skills, each torpedo could be targeted at a different craft, if the necessity arouse. The weapons blasted at full fusion speed towards the alien vessels, which where executing one evasive maneuver after another. Unfortunately for them, the objects were using their internal sensors to guide them towards their targets. 45 out of the targeted 50 ships were destroyed on impact, and the remaining five sustained heavy damage to all systems. Frederic nodded in satisfaction at the exploding balls of gas on the main screen.

"45 craft destroyed and we crippled 5 more. Reloading torpedo tubes. We can fire again in 4 minutes."

"Transfer emergency power to phasers, lock on and fire."

The alien ships, already shaken by the fact that they had just lost 50 ships, were now utterly panicking as the station cut loose with its phasers and destroyed craft after craft. Ketari command ordered their ships withdrawn to the carriers.

"Sir, they're withdrawing into the carriers." Daphnix reported.

"How long until torpedoes?"

"50 seconds for full load sir."

"Harris, open channel. HURRY UP MAN!" Frederic was shouting now. The bridge crew did not let this go by unnoticed.

"Channel open, sir."

"Ketari vessels, this is Phalanx Fromthefield. Do not attempt to come back here, or you will be destroyed. You will leave the five crippled vessels, but you may retrieve your wounded and dead from them."

Ketari command responded on audio only. "Phalanx Fromthefield, your strength means nothing to us. We will return and squash you like the bug you are. As for the ships: we will not leave them."

Frederic looked disappointed. He made the 'cut transmission' motion to Harris.

"Jennifer, tow one ship into bay 2. Daphnix, get two security teams ready there. Keep the torpedoes and phasers locked onto the five carriers. One wrong move and blast them out of the sky."

"Yes, sir!" they both said.

"Sir, the carriers and Battleships are more heavily armed and shielded than the smaller craft. We will have more problems getting through them.."

"Let's hope they don't realize that until it's too late."

"One ship has been transported in." Jennifer said, to confirm that the internal portal plant had successfully created a portal around the ship and got it in.

"Sir, they're re-releasing their fighters!" Daphnix yelled.

"Fire torpedoes at capital ships. Get us within phaser range and fire." Frederic ordered, tapping his armrest station to get as much info as possible.

"500 torpedoes launched at the ten ships, sir. Phaser range in 5…4…3…2…1…firing phasers."

On the main screen, the ten ships were momentarily covered in annihilating antimatter. After the station came within firing range, the orange/red energy beams sliced through the weakened shields and destroyed carrier after carrier, battleship after battleship.

"Last remaining battleship has come out of panic reaction. They are preparing to fire. So are the smaller craft."

The 280 remaining fighters blasted towards the station, cutting away with energy weapons blazing and torpedoes plunging into the center's shields.

The bridge was filled with acrid smoke, accompanying a destroyed console. The normal lights were completely off now, and the only illumination was provided by the emergency red lights.

"Shields down. Massive hull damage on decks 10 and 11. The force fields have failed. Decks have been sealed according to damage control Zebra. We have two burnt out shield generators, casualties are streaming into sickbay. We have lost 5 torpedo tubes and 10 phaser arrays."

"Fire at will. Take out as many as you can. At least we'll go down fighting." Frederic said.

Daphnix unleashed phaser barrage after phaser barrage and torpedo volley after torpedo volley. The aliens fell like flies, but they did manage to inflict massive damage onto the gigantic station.

"Sire, there are only 80 fighters remaining. They are regrouping around the last remaining battleship. I think they want to escape."

"Good. Transmit to them…" the alien ships simply vanished from the screen.

"Never mind that. Commander Harris, I am sorry to have lost my temper at you. I just wanted to buy the time needed to get one ship in here."

"That's alright sir."

Frederic nodded. "Damage rapport?"

"Engines off-line. One ruptured deuterium tank. Two fusion reactors destroyed. Communications offline. We have control over 12 torpedo tubes and only 40 phaser arrays. Massive hull breaches on decks 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. Emergency force fields have failed to protect them, and damage control condition Zebra has been initiated. We have lost 20 of the 50 shield generators. We are a sitting duck out here, sir." Daphnix finished.

"Jennifer, anything on sensors?"

"Sensors behaving erratically, sir."

Frederic nodded. He hated sitting here without any means of defense. He had weapons, but without shields those were worthless. "Commander, organize repair teams. Focus on shields and engines, with engines at top priority."

Commander Harris nodded and stood up to leave the bridge. He knocked his fist against the list door as it refused to open. He shook his head and exited through the crawlway.

"We barely escaped with our lives. How many did we loose?"

"10 dead, 50 seriously injured and over 150 with minor injuries. The medical mentals are doing overtime in patching them up, sir." Jennifer said.

"I hope that the next battle won't be a pyrrhic victory. Jennifer, as soon as communications are repaired, transmit to earth: victory! Require construction of new Daedalus class fighters immediately. "

"Yes, sir."

Frederic nodded and bent over, letting his forehead rest in the palm of his hand. All of a sudden it struck the bridge crew that Frederic made a beaten appearance.

"I'll be in my quarters when I'm needed. Daphnix, you have the bridge." Frederic literally had to drag himself to the still inoperative lift. He muttered a "damn" under his breath when the thing still wouldn't open. He unsheathed the sword. It too made a beaten and weary appearance. Frederic attempted to draw a portal, and failed. Apparently, this was the last drop, because he fell to his knees, his head resting against the ever-closed lift doors.

Jennifer watched the love of her life fall to his knees. She shot Daphnix a look, and he shot her the same one back. Together, they walked over to Frederic, and lifted him up.

"Are you ok? What happened?" Daphnix asked.

"Tired… too much… can't cope." Frederic croaked. His head dropped, and his two friends noticed that his knees had given up completely, as had the rest of his body. Much to their relief did they become aware of the fact that Frederic was in a deep, regenerative sleep. They carried him to the command chair, and made him comfortable in it, making sure that he'd get as much as possible from his deep sleep. From then on, Jennifer took it upon herself to supply a mental field around Frederic, making sure that he wouldn't be disturbed by noise or mental activity.

"The lifts are repaired, so are the engines and the emergency force fields on the condition Zebra decks. They have been secured from damage control condition Zebra. All access to the affected Decks has been reestablished."

Daphnix nodded. "Good, I will get the Phalanx to his quarters. Jennifer, you have the bridge."

"No."

Daphnix was startled by her resolute tone. This was so unlike her.

"What?"

"I said no. I will carry him to his quarters. You are needed here." Jennifer said. Her tone was one that made quite clear that she would not allow no for an answer.

"If you feel so strong about it, ok go ahead." Daphnix said. Jennifer carefully used her telekinetic powers to lift Frederic from the chair. She floated him to the lift and disappeared in it. Daphnix sagged back down into the command chair.

Frederic felt like the '1812 overture' had been played on his head. In fact, it felt more like it was still busy. He slowly lifted his right arm, and put his hand on his forehead. He carefully opened his eyes, and found the lights pleasantly dimmed.

"Owww. What happened?" he managed to stammer.

"Careful, honey. You collapsed on the bridge, and we had to wait till the lifts were repaired to get you in here." Jennifer had knelt down next to his bed, gently holding his left hand.

Frederic's head turned towards the origin of the voice. A gentle smile appeared on his face.

"How are you feeling?" she asked finally.

"My head feels like exploding, every muscle in my body feels like it's been dragged through a meat-mincer and I can't remember anything past our victory over the Ketari. For the rest, I'm just fine. Say, how long until we reach Earth?"

"You were asleep almost 15 hours. We arrived a couple of hours ago, and the F² factories have reported that they have begun the construction of 1000 Daedalus-class fighters. Earth central command has just announced that the first 500 fighter-crews are ready to embark. They've been trained in the flight sims we programmed using the second prototype's flight data."

Frederic's face lit up. The info had gotten through the shroud clouding his brain from operating at 100% and he felt his strength returning.

"Good. And the craft we recovered?"

"At lab Alpha for investigation. The thing has some extraordinary equipment on board. The 3 aliens inside have been delegated to holding cell 9, and the mental dampers are operational. they haven't regained consciousness yet."

Frederic nodded. "Those extraordinary equipment would include faster-than-light travel, neural computers and modified shields and hull materials?"

"And how do you know this?" Jennifer's voice sounded astounded.

"I observed them. They appeared out of nothing and disappeared into nothing, but I saw that, just prior to disappearing, they accelerated immensely. The reaction speed of those things is way beyond any pilot or regular computer system. And the shields and hull being modified I deduced from the fact that the explosions of the torpedoes were distorted, and that the phaser beams had less effect on their hulls." Frederic's vigor returned during this statement, and he managed to sit upright in his bed, his feet resting next to the bed.

"You seem to be feeling better." Jennifer said, sitting up next to him.

"I'm still pretty sore, but my headache's gone, and I am remembering some of the things that happened after we beat back the Ketari."

"I'm glad. What cause you to collapse anyway?"

A tear formed at Frederic's right eye, and the sadness that came over his face was…scary. "I could FEEL them… so horrible. I needed all the power I could muster to retain my balance." His voice was soft, almost too soft to be heard.

Jennifer looked into those sad eyes and looked back quizzically.

"Don't you understand? I felt every human being on this station DIE! I could feel their essences leaving the physical behind, and pass on to the next world. It was horrible. The pain, the searing pain that accompanies being killed by energy weapons of Ketari design. It burned in every fiber of my being, and I had to shut it out. I don't know how this happened, I mean, I've killed before. But I never felt the death of my fellow human being." Frederic had difficulty maintaining his emotional balance, Jennifer had noticed it as soon as he began telling about the pain and suffering. She had draped her arm around his shoulders, comforting him while he told on.

Jennifer hugged him and he buried his head in her embrace and wept. She held on to him as all the emotions, all the pain disappeared with every passed sob.

After 5 minutes, Frederic wept away the last tears with the back of his hand.

"Thank you." He said, loosing himself into Jennifer's embrace.

"Any time. I am always available when you need me." Jennifer said, while holding on to Frederic like she was holding onto life itself.

They stayed like that for a few more minutes. They both needed the comfort of having the other one around. Finally, Frederic broke the embrace.

"Now, are we going to take a look at that alien ship?"

"Sure." Jennifer slid her arm around Frederic's waist, and he placed his around her shoulders. Like that, they walked to Alpha lab. Previously, the large lab on deck 48 had been deserted, but now it was bristling with life. People in white coats ran all over the place, the computer terminals humming with activity and the large, green, torpedo-shaped ship in the middle of all the action.

"How is everything going?" Frederic asked the head scientist.

"Everything is going just fine, sir. We will have a full report by the end of the week. There will be some astounding breakthroughs with the help of this baby." The man let his hand slide down the green bodywork.

"Good work. What have we got so far?"

"We have the basics for the faster than light travel, and we think we'll be able to test a design of our own in a few weeks. It is easily adaptable. The neural computer system is going to take a little longer, and the body material, well let's just say we haven't gotten started yet. But, the best is yet to come. As soon as we are able to break the computer code, we'll be able to have access to all the info that is stored in there."

"It will probably be nothing of real importance." Frederic said.

"Sir, estimates are that there are over 500 terabytes of info in there."

"500 terabytes?"

"Affirmative." The man said with some pride in his voice.

Frederic just whistled appreciatively. "Good work everybody! Keep it up!" Frederic shouted over the place. The men and women working there let their appreciation of this compliment be heard audibly.

Frederic and Jennifer left the alpha lab, met up with Daphnix, and went out to the planet.

The three friends first went to Earth central command, where they spoke to admiral Decker, head of the Earth Strategic Mental Forces, or ESMF, while Frederic was in space.

"How are our forces doing?" Frederic asked.

The man, although three times Frederic's age, acted with the respect that would have made the president of the United States jealous.

"We currently have 200,000 mental troops staged in bases all over the globe. We have 500 fully trained Daedalus crews ready to embark. There are another 10,000 more soldiers in training, so are another 1000 Daedalus crews. F² factories report that the first 1000 Daedalus fighters will be ready in 2 months."

"Good job, admiral. Keep it up. I want you to have another 3 design teams ready for the Alpha lab report by the end of the week."

"By the end of the week is a little short, but I think we'll manage."

"Good. I expected nothing less from you. If it weren't for those aliens, I would never press you so hard."

"I know, sir."

Frederic nodded one last encouragement, and walked down the elevation they were standing on. He went to the front of the circular command center. Frederic talked with the crew, heard their problems and their joys. He shared both good and bad. Like on the command center, the crew down here on earth carried him on hands.

Frederic and his friends then went to the F² factories, and talked to Barbara and Sonya. Both where more than happy to see him back. Michelle was still in school, racing through the classes to get her degree, so she could join the others.

After the pleasantries, in which they told each other what has happened, Frederic asked:

"And how are the factories doing?"

"We have 500 shops in the US, 500 spread all over the world, and 1000 more under way. The production of computer materials has doubled, we have just bought Intel and Motorola, whose expertise has helped us heighten our standards. We have also bought the factories owned by your grandfather. We have also acquired a couple of lead software developers, including Microsoft, and Apple. Our new F² operating system is flying over the counter. We have just sold our 25^th million copy."

"25 million? Like in 25,000,000?" Frederic asked.

"What would you expect from an operating system, completely compatible with both Mac and IBM, and works ten times faster than them?"

"How about compatibility with the Unix OS, Amiga, and consorts?"

"Is being worked on. We're releasing a patch for them next month, after we buy them, and their paper work."

"Great! How is the financial situation of the Phalanx defensive network?"

"We have 45 Swiss bank accounts, and the balance has reached 'uncountable'." They all laughed at this little joke.

"Now, seriously, show me the balances, please."

Barbara sat down, and her fingers raced the keyboard of the computer. A list of figures appeared. Frederic nodded.

"You're right, they have reached 'uncountable'. Say, haven't we gotten into trouble with the taxman yet?"

"We convinced the man to keep his mouth shut."

Frederic looked strangely at her. "Like HOW did you convince the man to keep his mouth shut?"

"We enlisted him into the mental army."

Again, they laughed.

After Frederic and his two friends completed their tour on Earth, they went back to the command center.

The entire command center crew was amassed on Deck 25. They were standing in a U shape, with ten open torpedo casings in the middle. In each of the casings, one man or woman resided. Frederic was standing at the front, facing the ten casings.

"These brave men and women have given their lives in the line of duty. They have made the ultimate sacrifice for the protection of the human race." Frederic concluded his speech. "For this I can only thank them. Farewell my comrades, I salute you." Frederic said.

Daphnix stepped forward from his position at one of the legs of the U, and put a trumpet to his mouth. Under the tones of the Last Post, the casing slowly lifted, and disappeared into portals. The people turned around, faced the big screen, and watched ten torpedoes blast into space.

The station was still pretty much banged up, but for the rest of the day, Frederic had given everybody the day off. They were all deeply disturbed with their first loss of human life in this war, and none of them could shake the feeling that these wouldn't be the last.

Over the course of the next week, Frederic, along with the entire command center crew, was on a leave. The men back on Earth finished the repairs quickly, and the scientist examining the alien craft also made excellent progress. They had managed to get into the Ketari neural computer. It was then that they realized that getting in was the easy part. The entire thing was written in the aliens' mother tongue, and it was probably encoded as well.

Frederic was sitting in front of holding cell 9, staring directly at the ugliest creatures he had ever laid his eyes upon: the Ketari crew from the ship.

"I know you can understand my language. Help us in reading your computer files, and we will treat you well." Frederic tried convincing them for the umpteenth time. They didn't react. Or so Frederic thought initially.

One of the aliens sprung forward, and connected hard against the force field. The alien started yelling abuses at Frederic.

"You stupid little human. You are the ugliest creatures we have encountered so far, and the most barbaric. You don't deserve to live, you polluting mistakes in the fabric of the space-time continuum!" his voice hissed a little.

"Have you ever looked into a mirror? Your race won't win any beauty contests either." Frederic spat back.

"Not bad for a first try, but your brains are possibly to primitive to think of anything more complex, is it?"

Frederic was beginning to loose his temper. "At least we HAVE a brain."

"If our roles were reversed, we wouldn't even feed you to the animals, they wouldn't want you anyway."

Frederic's temper reached boiling point. "I have seen sea-slugs that were less slimy than your species."

"Well done, puny human. You are beginning to get the hang of it."

"THAT'S IT! " Frederic's temper boiled over. His powers emerged, slammed through the force field, and penetrated the alien's mind. Frederic soon wished he hadn't. The alien's training had given him the possibility of fighting back intrusion after the initial shielding has failed. Frederic had to fight every step of the way.

Soon, however, it was all over. Frederic had complete access. To the contrary of thoughts and speech, every mind uses the same language to encode languages for the thought and speech process. For this reason, Frederic had complete and utter understanding of the alien's mind. In a matter of minutes, he had assimilated the alien's language, and he began downloading his thoughts, making sure that the codes and decryption sequences to the alien computer were copied first.

Frederic slowly opened his eyes. His anger had subsided. He looked inside the holding cell, and the two untouched aliens were looking strangely at him. The third alien was laying unconscious on the floor, clutching his head.

"That is what happens when information is refused. I will personally rip every bit of info from those puny brains of yours. Think about that for a few days. Without food, drink, light or other contact but yourselves." Frederic stood up, turned off all the lighting and walked out. He heard the two conscious aliens yell after him, but Frederic closed the door, locked it and gave specific orders to make sure that no one would be allowed in.

He relayed the info on decoding the computer, the language and all the rest he had 'borrowed' from the alien to Linda. She made sure that everybody got a message that the info was available. Soon, Frederic got a message from the research department, telling him that the codes had been accepted, and that Linda was now busy translating the 500 terabytes of info encoded in the neural computer core.

Frederic was happy about the success of his mind-raping activity, and walked to the portal and disappeared into it.

That evening, he and Jennifer were sitting in one of the dinning rooms of the command center. They had recently dedicated one night per the week 'their' evening, where they would dine together, and go out and do some activity, to make sure that they would have at least the one evening of private activity.

Frederic had taken extra care in preparing. The lights in the dining room where out, and the entire chamber was lit with the flickering of candles. A soft romantic piece of music played in the background.

After dinner, Frederic and Jennifer stayed in the dining room, and danced. First a few waltzes and then a tango. They sat back down, close together.

After some cuddling, they went for a walk on a deserted beach, under a full moon. They just walked on, holding each other's hand, content to be in each other's company. At Frederic's suggestion, they sat down on a dune, overlooking the ocean.

"Jennifer?"

"That sounds so serious. What is it?" she said, cuddling closer to him.

"I have something for you." Frederic said, and held a small box in front of her. Jennifer opened the gift-wrapped box, and opened the lid. It contained a foamy substance, and a piece of paper was folded neatly and placed on top. She looked questioningly at him.

"Go on, read it." he encouraged her.

She unfolded it, and began to read:

My dearest love, my sweetest one,

May I tell you of my heart?

It tells me that of all this world,

You are the very dearest part.

 

Your silky hair, your fair, soft skin,

And your eyes a lustrous blue.

In all the world there cannot be

A woman more beautiful than you.

 

In the day, all through the night,

My thoughts alight on nothing more

Than you, my love, my sweetest one,

The only one that I adore.

 

And so this night, beneath this moon,

I ask if you could help me be

The happiest man in all the world.

Jenny, will you marry me?

 

Jennifer read it again and again, until she could really believe what was written. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes and threw herself in his arms.

"Oh, yes Fred. Yes, I'll marry you."

Frederic embraced her, and kissed her on the lips. "You just made me the happiest man on the galaxy." He said, and took the piece of foam out of the box. Apparently, it was made of two pieces, as a small piece remained behind, but in it was the most beautiful ring Jennifer had ever seen. Frederic took it out, and presented it to her. She spread her hand, and Frederic slid the ring on her finger.

"It's beautiful. What is it?" she asked, looking at the stone that had a different color each time she looked at it from a different angle.

"That is a very rare stone. Actually, there's only one more specimen in existence." He unsheathed his sword, and showed her a small piece of stone that was placed between all those diamonds on the handle.

"Those stones have the ability to transfer mental power. You see, this stone was placed here to transfer the power from the sword to me. Now, I've given you that ring to transfer my power to you, if you ever need it."

"Thank you, darling. Thank you."

Their lips met, and their embrace seemed to go on for hours. Neither of them was able to voice their happiness. For the first time since long, they let go of their emotions and tears of happiness caressed both their faces.