Chapter 47

In the morning, Mark went to his office to go through his daily reports. The only item that caught his attention was that there were hundreds of unknown ships approaching Cantara, which was on the far side of the sensor network.

Mark asked, “Is that the Rifters?”

“I think so, I recognize a few of the ships from when they were around Trayak.”

“How far is Cantara from here?”

“A long way! Cantara was one of the most remote planets the Federation ever found. Even with our upgraded FTL drives and star charts, it would still take almost a sectar to reach the planet. We have an Explorer in orbit there though.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot we still had Explorers rotating in to Cantara, Hytros and Virgohn! Those planets are all monitored by our sensor network now aren’t they?”

“Yes, they are all monitored, as is Rylen IV, since it’s actually the closest planet to Cantara and deeper into our monitored space.”

“Good, let’s stop that practice then, there’s no use sending people to monitor a non-Federated planet that we’re already monitoring. What are the closest Sentinels to that location?”

“There’s a Sentinel at Arias, about 7 days away from Cantara. Otherwise we have two Sentinels sitting at the asteroid shipyard, one was originally destined for Kompf and the other for Trayak, they are 10 days away.”

“Send the Sentinel from Arias to Cantara, then redirect one of the new Sentinels to Arias. Then can you put me in contact with the Captain of the Explorer there?”

Seconds later, Captain Kirby answered the call, “It is a pleasure to talk to you, my King. I’m guessing you’re calling because of the 150 plus ships headed toward Cantara?”

Mark smiled, “Good guess! I believe those ships are the Rifters and we believe both Brian Hawker and Sebastian are with them right now.”

“So do you want us to negotiate to get them handed over to us?”

“Possibly, but my worry is not the Rifters, Hawker, nor Sebastian, it’s what is chasing them! There were nine of these massive ships called Destructors that attacked Trayak and blew the planet to pieces. We rescued a couple of survivors from the attack at Trayak and, from what they’ve told us, these Destructors have been chasing the Rifters for yahren, and we know Sebastian and Hawker have a plan to build some new ships using construx, then transfer everyone off the old ships and escape the Destructors via light drive. That doesn’t help the people of Cantara, though!”

Captain Kirby looked glum, “Cantara is a fairly simple planet with a population of about 75 million, but they don’t have a space program at all, they can’t evacuate. So what would you like us to do?”

“Even if I could get every transport in the Federation there, we still couldn’t evacuate 75 million people. They don’t know we’re there, so let’s keep it that way for the time being. As much as I hate to say it, the Cantarans would be better off not knowing about their impending doom, allow them to live in blissful ignorance until the attack actually starts, rather than giving them warning and turning their remaining days or sectons into a living nightmare of panic, lawlessness and widespread chaos!”

“So what’s the plan then?”

“Let’s try to stop the Destructors! Stay cloaked and go in the direction that the Rifters are coming from and drop sensor beacons until our network can detect the nebula cloud. There has to be a nebula rift just beyond our sensor network and I’m hoping it has sensors around it identifying the nebula as Rift Nebula #2 ... we need to find it!

Once you’ve found the nebula, wait there for the Destructors to show up, I’ve already redirected a Sentinel your way, I just don’t know if it will reach you before the Destructors arrive. Cantara is just too remote!

I’ve heard they aren’t capable of FTL travel, so maybe they won’t be able to detect cloaked ships either? So stay cloaked and try to hit them with a TRD as they emerge from the nebula. If a general TRD attack doesn’t work, you must look for a point of weakness, like an engine, weapon port or bridge. If that doesn’t work, follow them and see if you can attack them as they ready themselves to fire the primary weapon. Something tells me the central belly is their point of weakness. Maybe when they open the hatches on the bottom of the ship, you can get a shot into the belly of the beast?

Stay clear of their primary weapon when it fires though, the beam moves like lightning and can jump to nearby ships. It cut through the Star Hunter, and its shields, like a hot knife through butter. They also have fighters or drones with laser weapons, but they seem pretty ineffective.”

“What about the Rifters and Cantarans?”

“I will deal with them, I’ll contact you if the plans change!”

“We’re on it, my King! Hopefully we’ll have more information soon.”

“Be safe, Captain Kirby!”

“Cricket, redirect the second Sentinel at the asteroid shipyard to Cantara as well! I think they’ll be too late, but we can always hope!”

Mark then contacted Adam, “The Rifters just appeared out near Cantara, so we are likely not heading to Silica any longer. I need to figure some stuff out and then I’ll head up to the ready room so we can contact them.”

The Cleito was currently in FTL about half the distance between the Poseidon and Cantara, so Mark sent a message redirecting them towards the estimated intercept coordinates with the Rifters. They’d get the message when they did a comm-stop.

The Cleito was about 7 days from the intercept point with the Rifters. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long to transfer everyone off their ships.

Mark then realized that with planet killing Destructors about, they really needed to mass evacuate planets, but everything he came up with just wasn’t workable. Even a ship that could hold one million people would be so massive and would still only be a drop in the bucket, even for a sparse planet such as Cantara. So he eventually gave up on the evacuation idea.

They would just have to figure out a way to destroy the Destructors.

With no further ideas coming to him, Mark left his office and found most of the gang hanging out in the common area, drinking their morning beverages.

Annabelle asked, “Aren’t we supposed to be en route to Silica right now?”

Mark said, “We were, but that was before the Rifters appeared just beyond our sensor network out by Cantara. Right now I’m working on a plan to deal with them and the Destructors.”

Liyana said, “Cantara? We are a LONG way from Cantara, we aren’t going to head that way, are we?”

Ra’ki asked, “Your ships can travel faster than light, can’t they? If you say they are a LONG way away, how LONG would it take us to get there?”

Mark said, “Federation space is huge, even travelling faster than light, it would still take us almost a sectar to reach Cantara.”

Most everyone there simultaneously said, “Whoa!”

“The Cleito is the closest ship to there right now, so I’ve redirected them that direction. It’s still going to take them a secton to intercept the Rifters, we also have an Explorer that was in orbit around Cantara, I’ve sent them off to extend our sensor network to find the rift nebula and wait for the Destructors, and I’ve dispatched the Sentinel from Arias and another Sentinel that was waiting at the Atlanterra asteroid shipyard to assist. I just don’t know if they’ll get there in time!

Ra’ki, do you know how many Rifters there are?”

Ra’ki just shook her head, “We’re always gaining and losing ships, so the population fluctuates too much to track. I could guess and say 2 to 3 hundred thousand, but I really have no idea!”

“Cricket, the Sentinels are 5 kilometres long. If we take out most of the landing bays and reconfigure 3 to 4 kilometres on each side into quarters, how many quarters could we create?”

“Because we’re dealing with potential families, we’ll need quarters that are larger than normal personnel quarters. A 4 metre square room that’s 3 metres high would easily handle a double bed and maybe an optional bunk bed for children. If we convert 3.5 kilometres on each side of the ship, that would leave one landing bay on each side. Each landing bay was 100 metres long, 50 metres high and 50 meters deep, so we could turn each of those bays into 15 levels of quarters, 10 rows deep. That would give us 262,500 quarters.”

“People will need in some activities and outlets to keep them sane, reconfigure for 250,000 rooms and add a few amenities. We don’t need to be a luxury cruise, but maybe some workout areas and libraries would help pass the time. They’re probably also going to need a few more cafeterias.”

He then turned his attention back to the group, “I’m about to go talk to the Rifters from the ready room. Ra’ki, I want you present and Liyana, you should probably also be there as our ambassador. Annabelle, you’re the Queen, it’s your decision.”

Mark and the attendees all grabbed their morning beverages and made their way to the ready room to contact the Rifters.

Adam joined them as they all got seated around the table, then Mark had Cricket hail the Rifters and route the call into the ready room. This was something far beyond anything normal communications technicians could do, so everyone looked on with amazement. Here they were, contacting a non-Federation ship on the complete other side of their monitored universe.

Within a couple of centons, numerous ships accepted their hail, and soon ten faces on what appeared to be different ships were on the call.

Mark began the call by saying, “Hello there, my name is Mark Phoenix, the King of the Atlantean Federation. I am contacting you because you have entered Federation space and we would like to offer our assistance.”

The one leader said, “Sebastian has told us all about you and your Federation. We don’t need your help.”

Ra’ki then said, “Captain Opperon, do you remember me?”

The man in the lower left window said, “Ra’ki? Is that you? I thought we lost you when our ship was destroyed.”

Ra’ki said, “I got into an escape pod and these people saved me. They’ve since opened my eyes to a lot of things. Brian and Sebastian aren’t the saviours you think they are, these are the people you should work with.”

The first man then said, “They are going to build us new ships, using these automatic construction devices, and take us where the Destructors can’t follow.”

Mark then spoke, “I’m not so sure I would trust their shipbuilding skills. The Star Hunter they built before didn’t last very long in a fight and, before that, it malfunctioned and almost wiped out an entire planet!

We have already dispatched three ships to intercept and attack the Destructors when they emerge from the rift nebula. We have seen the videos of the Star Hunter’s attack on the Destructors and they didn’t fare very well, but our ships are faster, stronger and have better weapons, so hopefully we’ll have some success. Plus, we’re in a much better position to help you settle on a planet, since we currently have 17 planets in the Federation you can settle on.”

Sebastian then cut in to the call, “Don’t listen to that imposter, he’s lying to you, the Federation only has 11 planets.”

Adam laughed and then spoke, “Sebastian, you were the imposter. The Federation is at 17 planets these days. It’s amazing what can happen when you get a true King, that actually knows what they’re doing, into the position. The King has done more for the Federation in a yahren, than you ever did! You and Hawker are just criminals wanted on many planets for a variety of crimes, none of which is bigger than the genocide of over one billion people on Thulark!”

Everyone on the call seemed surprised at hearing the accusation for the second time, until Ra’ki spoke up, “It’s true! Not only have I seen the video of the attack from the Star Hunter, but I’ve even visited Thulark. In fact, we’re still orbiting it. Out of more than a billion people, there were less than 50,000 survivors and these people are currently helping them rebuild, so they can definitely help with the settlement.”

Sebastian, not the brightest person, then admitted their own guilt by saying, “Thulark was an accident, we didn’t mean to wipe them out.”

Everyone could hear Hawker in the background. “Shut up, you imbecile!”

Mark then said, “Sirs, if you could please detain those two men, we will take them off your hands when we rendezvous with you. In exchange for handing them over to us, we will help you escape the Destructors AND get you settled on one of our planets.”

One man nodded and then they could then see both Hawker and Sebastian being taken into custody, as the initial speaker which they assumed must be the primary leader of the Rifters, said, “OK, we’re putting our lives in your hands. How can we help you help us?”

“First off, what is your name, and are you the leader?”

“My apologies, I’m Captain Portman and we’re all equals here, we’re the captains of the largest ships in the fleet and govern by committee, but I am the head of the committee.”

Mark said, “It is my pleasure to meet you all!”

Captain Portman then repeated, “So how can we help you help us?”

“For starters, DO NOT WARN THE CANTARANS! You guys should really do scans before you warn planets, if they aren’t capable of space travel and you show up telling them they’re all going to die ... all you’re doing is turning their remaining time into a living nightmare of panic, chaos and lawlessness. If you can’t evacuate their population and there’s absolutely nothing they can do about it, let them live in blissful ignorance until their demise!

Continue past Cantara and keep going in the direction you are headed. Cantara is quite remote, so the closer you can get to us, the faster we can get to you. Also, do you know the population across all your ships?”

The leader said, “We estimate that there is close to 300,000 people among 153 ships.”

“We have a ship headed your way right now, it should reach you in about 7 days. I’m not sure how many couples or families you have, but the ship has 250,000 temporary quarters on it, and it can get you away from the Destructors. Once they reach you, we can meet and discuss where everyone would like to settle.”

The leader then said, “You have an existing ship that can accommodate our entire population? How far away are you right now?”

Mark said, “Yes, the ship itself has 250,000 quarters on it and each room can accommodate up to 4 people if needed. And we’re a long way away! We’re near the last rift you went through, which is on the other side of our explored universe. Our ships are fast, but even travelling faster than light, it would still take us almost a sectar to reach you from here ... and I’m not about to risk going through the rift in our ship. We don’t know enough about them, and I can’t risk abandoning my people.”

“We will do as you say, our survival is now in your hands. Ra’ki’s endorsement of you, combined with what you have said and the infrastructure you appear to have, tells me you are offering a more complete solution than what Hawker and Sebastian were offering. We will hold them for you until you get here!”

“The ship that will intercept you is the Cleito, under the command of Commander Northrop. When he reaches you, use your shuttles to transfer everyone from your ships onto it. There will be a kiosk in the hallway outside the landing bay that will assign the rooms. Once you contact the Cleito, I will contact you.”

They then disconnected the call and sat around the table, with everyone looking to Mark regarding what to do next, and they could see he was thinking hard.

After about 30 microns, Adam asked, “So, where to my King?”

Mark said, “I’m not sure! I think we’re too far away to do anything, and if they’re looking to settle somewhere, I think Thulark would be the ideal place for them. I’m almost tempted to just stay here and wait for them to arrive! Maybe even get their settlement built and ready for them to occupy?”

Annabelle said, “I could handle a few more days here, this planet is incredible.”

Adam said, “The crew is going to love to hear that!”, as he turned to leave the ready room.

The next secton seemed to pass so quickly. Each morning Captain Kirby’s report would say there was no sign of the Sentinels or the Destructors. It had only taken one more sensor beacon until they detected Rift Nebula #2, but only the first pair of jumpers had checked in.

On the 5^th day, Captain Kirby reported that they detected two cloaked ships, with the Federation IDs RJ3 and RJ4, that exited the nebula and then went back inside. So that meant that all four rift jumpers were still operational and jumping the same rifts. It also meant that traversing the rifts were not instant, and took time, albeit less time than travelling the distance in FTL.

They spent each day down on the surface of the planet doing many activities, Mark and the girls had become fond of Elavon and were even getting to know the residents. Thulark was definitely the most melting pot type planet in the Federation now. They had seen no hyenas or flying horses, but pretty much every other species was represented.

At the calculated time of when the Cleito should be about to rendezvous with the Rifters, Mark made sure everyone was in the ready room, so they could take part in the meeting with the Rifters.

Commander Northrop called Mark as soon as they reached the destination, “My King, on our way here, I took some personnel down to the Sentinel to come up with a plan to accommodate 300,000 people. Were we ever surprised to find you had revamped the entire Sentinel while we were travelling? Wow, what a surprise!”

Mark said, “Sorry! I guess I should’ve told you I was making some modifications to the Sentinel. They are autonomous ships made with construx under my control, I can retrofit them to fit various roles.”

Someone off display said something, and the Commander laughed, “My staff want to know if their quarters can be setup like the ones in here?”

Mark laughed and said, “I’ll think about it!”

The first shuttles were just about to arrive on the Sentinel, so Mark disconnected the call and told the Commander that he would meet him and the Rifter committee in the ready room.

The Rifter leaders were on the first shuttles to arrive, along with both Sebastian and Hawker in tow.

Everyone on the shuttles was looking around the landing bay of the massive ship, it was unlike anything they had every seen before. Even Sebastian and Hawker seemed in awe. When they entered the hallway outside the landing bay, they could see the 3 kilometre long mobile shipyard in the centre of the ship and that there now was at least 15 levels of rooms on both sides of the well lit, but currently dormant shipyard.

The Commander greeted them and then escorted the leaders and criminals through the Sentinel and then up into the Defender. Once on the Cleito, there was another round of oohs and ahh’s as they realized there was a whole other ship, separate, but seamless from the one they were just on.

They heard Hawker saying, “Now this is a ship! Ingenious! It’s a warship, mass transport and shipyard all in one and can even seamlessly connect with other ships! This is a warship, isn’t it?”

The Commander said, “Security is its primary purpose! The shipyard can build up to three Defenders at a time, it’s also equipped with thousands of autonomous fighter drones and has a variety of every weapon the Federation has.”

It impressed the Rifter leaders as Captain Portman asked, “So how many of these massive shipyard/transport/warships does the Federation have?”

The Commander said, “They’re called Sentinels and I’m not exactly sure ... every planet has one, every Defender has one and I think there’s a few more waiting to be deployed. So, maybe 20?”

The Commander then looked at, and spoke, directly to Sebastian, “It’s amazing what we can accomplish with a true King at the helm!”

Captain Portman then said, “Speaking of the King, I thought he would meet with us when you got here?”

“Yes, he not physically here, but he’s waiting for us in the ready room,” he then looked at the security personnel watching Hawker and Sebastian, “Take these two away and lock them in a holding cell until they can be punished for their crimes,” then as an aside, but loud enough that both Hawker and Sebastian could hear, “Personally I’d like to drop them off at Thulark and let them dispense justice!”

As security took Sebastian and Hawker away to holding cells, Commander Northrop led the leaders to the bridge and into the ready room, where Commander Topos, Mark, Annabelle, Ra’ki and Liyana were already connected and waiting.

Mark led off the meeting, “Welcome everybody, I see Commander Northrop and his crew are helping to get your people transferred over, I hope the accommodations will suffice and I also hope that you won’t be stuck on that ship for too long. It all depends on where you decide to settle. So, I suppose with this meeting we should probably go over the next part of the plan and then discuss your settlement.

My plan right now is to modify your old ships so they can be controlled remotely. Once everyone has been transferred over to our ship, we can enter FTL and begin heading toward wherever you want to settle. Then we can pilot your ships back toward the nebula, and hopefully the Destructors will chase.

Do you have any requests for where you would like to settle? We have lots of options.”

Captain Portman then said, “We have talked about settling for years. The standing plan was that we would create our own community. That would give people a chance to become accustomed to living on a planet and living a life that doesn’t involve a never-ending loop of running for our lives.”

“OK, so you want your own community. Might I interest you in Thulark? It’s a planet that has lots of open space, courtesy of two incompetent assholes, is under rapid redevelopment and has a mixture of pretty much every species of citizen we have in the Federation. Plus, it has pretty much every type of terrain there is and a transit system to get you around to other towns so you can visit and interact with others?”

Captain Portman said, “Thulark? The planet those guys destroyed? Are you just trying to dump us off on some decimated planet to keep us far away from others?”

“Absolutely not, in fact, quite the opposite! Thulark may have had its population and cities decimated, but the planet is currently one of the hottest development locations in the Federation. I only suggested it, because they do currently have lots of undeveloped space and, versus other established planets, with only one or two species living on it, Thulark has pretty much every species living there, much like your people. There’s a saying from a superhero movie I like that says, ‘When everyone is super, no one is!’, which more or less means it would be one of the easiest planets for a variety of new species to integrate with.”

“I never thought of that! You are right, often when we would take on survivors from a new species, they weren’t always hospitable to others, until they got to know them! Do you have any pictures or videos of Thulark, so we can see it?”

Mark said, “Here’s a live satellite view from the Guardian at Thulark.”

Captain Portman said, “It sure doesn’t look like a decimated planet!”, and another captain said, “It looks like there’s lots of vegetation and fresh water and even mountains with snow! It looks kind of neat with all those round lakes.”

Cricket then pulled up the new Thulark website, which had tons of information and promotional videos.

After looking through the site for a bit, they decided that it looked like a great place to settle. They even zoomed in from the Guardian view and found the location they wanted. It was two craters, or about 1,000 kilometres south of Elavon. That crater currently didn’t have any construction around it, except where crews had gone in and made paths for the water to flow into the existing river systems.

So Cricket saved a detailed scan of the immediate area and its location relative to other municipalities for their future reference.

Mark then received a notification from Captain Kirby, and announced to the group, “The Destructors were just emerging from the nebula near Cantara. Captain Kirby should engage them soon.”

Captain Portman said, “Is there any way for us to watch the attack? We’d like to see how effective you are against the Destructors.”

Mark said, “Sure! Why don’t we watch and then resume our meeting soon.”

Cricket then activated the bridge view from the Explorer. Unlike the Star Hunter, Federation ships actually had cameras in the front and at the back of the bridge, so the rear camera allowed you to see what the bridge crew was seeing.

Everyone watched with rapt attention as the little Explorer began attacking the massive Destructor ship.

The TRDs seemed to work, but as the ships detected the changing structure, they simply shed the damaged sections and let them disintegrate. They managed to destroy the first Destructors by firing many TRDs at the central weapon port until it could shed nothing more.

Seeing a Destructor destroyed prompted cheers from all the Rifters.

Throughout all their interactions over the years, they had never seen one of those ships destroyed.

At that point in time, Captain Portman said, “We were right to put our trust in the Federation, never have we ever seen one of the Destructor ships destroyed, and that it was one small ship that did it is even further proof that you can save us. I wonder what these big ships could do?”

As the second Destructor started emerging from the nebula, Captain Kirby asked, “How many of those things are there?”

One of the bridge crew replied, “The report said there were nine of them when they attacked Trayak.”

“So that leaves eight remaining. Time to change tactics!”

The Destructors seemed to be impervious to laser turret fire, but the pulse cannons caused some damage, albeit minimal, unless you hit the same spot multiple times. The good news was that the Destructors didn’t seem to view the single attacking ship as a threat and didn’t defend or attack, or they couldn’t detect the cloaked ship.

It wasn’t until Captain Kirby landed a pulse cannon shot directly at the centre point of the primary weapon opening on the underbelly of the ship, that he figured he must’ve found a weakness as they suddenly launched fighters.

They must not have been able to detect the cloaked ship, as they didn’t fire at him until he shot at the ship, then the fighters just fired randomly in the direction the Explorer had just fired from. The shields could easily handle the laser fire from the fighters, so they could keep that up indefinitely.

Fortunately, the Explorer was quite nimble, as Captain Kirby more or less used guerrilla tactics to hit and run, attacking different directions with pulse cannons to draw the fighter’s attention and then hitting the central underbelly with a TRD. After an hour of hit and run passes, hitting the centre of the underbelly weapon port with a TRD, he destroyed another Destructor.

Again there was another round of cheers from everybody.

Mark said, “Two down, seven to go. Captain Kirby is having success, but it looks like he’s in for a long, drawn out fight, as they could see even more fighters coming out to defend the massive ship.”

It only took a few more centares until they were approaching Cantara. As the remaining Destructors spread out around the planet, it was like they were all in sync as they all positioned themselves and opened the underbelly hatch.

Seeing his opportunity, Captain Kirby fired a TRD directly inside the ship as the weapon port opened. Eliminating one more Destructor to more cheers from those viewing the battle.

That tactic also worked a second time as they scored another direct hit into the weapon port.

Unfortunately, by the time they reached the third ship, the primary weapon had turned on and just like the Star Hunter, the beam jumped like a static electricity charge and destroyed Captain Kirby’s ship.

The Federation had never lost a ship in battle, so everyone took it as a slap of reality. They were in fact not invincible, but on a positive note they had found a couple of strategies to defeat the Destructors. Lots of TRDs could eventually destroy a ship, and they still suspected a powerful attack on the primary weapon hatch on the underside might prove lethal.

With the five remaining Destructors at Cantara now and no defences, it was only a matter of time until 75 million people perished! Everyone sat back and watched with lumps in their throats and tears in their eyes.

They had failed Cantara!

Within three centares the planet broke apart, and the Destructors continued forward, deeper into Federation space on a direct line toward the Rifter ships.

By the time they had finished transferring all the people to the Sentinel, Cricket had got every Rifter ship under remote control. They cloaked the Cleito and Sentinel as she piloted the Rifter ships back toward remains of Cantara and the rift, steering wide of the Destructors, hoping they would turn and follow.