“Mary, they are looking for you as well, they do not seem to be very concerned though, probably because they do not believe that the two of you know anything.” Furling said to a very startled Mary Willey. Just then, the alien machine that looked very much like a smart phone sprang to life; Furling pulled it out of his pocket and looked to see who was calling him.
**********
In orbit above the dark side of the Moon, the space cruiser hung like a large grey monster, one eager to start the task of cleansing the Earth of all intelligent life. Aboard it, Doctor Baris read a message given to him by a young ensign. Despair mixed with fear filled his heart as he thought back to the conversation that he had had with President Mortise; it had been just after agreeing to help him save the people of Earth from a genocidal attack by his own people.
“Two more starships will join your mixed fleet of starships, they will be similar to the Endeavour class, however they will not be there to tend to the crew members of the fleet, they will be there simply to manufacture more clones. It is then that you must strike Doctor; the utter destruction of the Endeavour together with the two new ships will put the invasion back ten years. The other operatives on the sixth planet will then contact the authorities of that planet and help them to locate and arrest all of the clones that have already landed. With the knowledge that an evil alien force wants to take their planet away from them, the rightful owners will be able to join forces and successfully prevent any further attempts at invasion.” President Mortise had said, more in hope than belief, for he also believed that the people of the sixth planet were too barbaric to act together. “Making our own people redouble their efforts to find another more suitable home world.”
The message from the ensign had told him of the arrival at the planet Uranus of the two new clone ships, the time of waiting was almost over, now he must act. He did wait though, for the time of day designated night aboard the Endeavour, then he headed down to the starship`s holds, here were the medical supplies necessary to manufacture the clones aboard the Endeavour, here too was a large crate simply marked Doctor Baris, laboratory equipment. However, it did not hold laboratory equipment; it held a powerful explosive device large enough to destroy the Endeavour, and everyone inside her. He passed few members of the crew on his way to the ship`s hold, and as each one walked by he felt like a traitor, worse, a murderer, one responsible for all of the Magentans that must die because of him. On reaching the number two hold, it took him but a minute to locate the crate. He now pulled out a remote control device, he set the explosive charge hidden within the crate to detonate in thirty-six hours, and this would give him time to activate the explosive devices stored aboard the two new ships, the Saviour and the Swift Response. Agents working for President Mortise had smuggled the explosive devices aboard the three craft, Baris hoped that that they would work, although a part of him hoped otherwise. The timers aboard the three starships could only be set now, to have set them a year or more beforehand risked a security sweep finding them, even now there was a chance that the one on the Endeavour could be found by a simple routine security sweep.
Baris took a flight aboard the Magenta to Uranus, ostensibly, to check in with the two medical teams and offer any advice that they might require. On reaching the first of the clone ships, the Saviour, he found the medical team there were quite up to the demands of the task set them. He stayed the night aboard the clone ship Saviour, and as on the Endeavour he slipped down to this starship`s hold to activate the explosive device, this time it was set to detonate in twelve hours` time.
He finally went across in a shuttlecraft to the second of the new clone starships, the Swift Response, and once again, he easily managed to slip away unnoticed by the medical team on board. Standing in front of the third crate Baris saw that he only had to set this final timer to detonate in ten hours, just then a crewman walked into the hold.
“Excuse me Sir, can I be of assistance?” The young crewman did not know Baris but the doctor had an air of authority about him, and so the crewman had asked his question politely.
“I am Doctor Baris, crewman, I am just checking each crates content`s list to ensure that all the correct medical supplies have been sent, I will be done in a minute.” Baris replied. His heart was thumping away now, as he waited for the young crewman to leave and not become suspicious.
“That was done before we left Magenta, Sir; it was found to be correct.” The young crewman said helpfully.
“I like to check everything for myself; it ensures that any mistake is corrected sooner rather than later.” Baris replied and looked down at the list, hoping that the young crewman would now disappear, which he did.
Baris looked after the retreating crewman, his conscience pricking him again at the thought of the young man dying in just ten hours` time. A young man who may not even like the thought of the genocide planned for the people of Earth.
Baric quickly put the fate of the young crewman from his mind and pulled out his remote control device. Once more, he activated the explosive device, and after setting the timer he strolled back up to his colleagues, he did not want to die alone. He certainly did not want to live after killing so many of his people, no matter that they were going to be party to the genocide that would soon begin on the planet named Earth. He now attempted to salve his conscience again at the thought of six hundred lives suddenly blotting out, but how would he feel when nine billion on the planet Earth simply died with only the odd whimper, surely the mathematics behind his decision made sense.
He walked into the recreation room and bought a large alcoholic drink, he needed it, and more, to drown the loud voice in his head accusing him of mass murder. It was while listening to a group of scientists that he learned about Phairlis`s proposed plan to move the invasion along a piece, he heard it while speaking to the head scientist about the problems that could occur before the clones were finally ready to accept a mind. The scientist had accompanied Baris from the Endeavour; he was a member of the council of the Chosen Ones.
“I was speaking with Consul Phairlis just before I came here, and from what he said I believe that he has finally decided to release a virus on the planet Earth. It is of Earth origin, but I have modified it somewhat to allow it to weed out some of the natives, don`t worry though, should you need to set foot on the planet, it will become benign after twelve of their months. The Clones and the humans that we have brainwashed of course will all be inoculated against it, as will the Magentans on the planet Mars and those on the moon of Earth. It is one reason why I came with you on your trip, to give the senior staff in orbit around this blue-green gas giant an update concerning our future plans, that and a supply of the vaccine, just in case it becomes necessary.”
The scientist did not shed a single tear for the many humans who would die, or the anguish felt by the survivors. The loud voice of Baris`s conscience was immediately squashed, he immediately hurried up to the cabin allocated to him, he needed to pack, he could no longer allow himself the luxury of dying, he needed to board the Attack Craft Magenta that was even now making ready to return to the Moon.
The attack craft Magenta took Baris back to the Constellation, where he had the use of a small cabin, although his main cabin was on the Endeavour, however, today he needed to survive the coming explosion aboard the Endeavour so that he could act upon the information that he received aboard the Swift Response.
**********
The Endeavour had moved nearer to the space Cruiser Constellation during the night and the Captain was just about to order his helmsman to use the port thrusters to push them further away when the explosive device detonated. The explosion destroyed much of the large starship; unfortunately, it also threw large pieces of the Endeavour at the Constellation, which only had their defence shields set to ward of micrometeorites. One very large piece impacted upon the outer hull that protected the engineering department, the hyperspace engines went off line immediately when a supporting beam crashed through it. The bridge of
the space cruiser fared no better when another huge piece of debris crashed into it killing four of the bridge crew who were still working there. Captain Lorinson was luckier; he had been sitting in his cabin resting.
Internal security doors slammed shut throughout the starship locking its crew in and preventing precious air from escaping. The only light available came from the red emergency lighting, for most of the power was off throughout the starship, unfortunately, only some of it was temporary. The hyper drive, badly damaged, would take over a year to repair, for the only spare parts available for damage on such a scale were on the planet Magenta. The sub light engines were also damaged and it would be days before a temporary repair was made, even then the starship would not be able to move at anywhere near its top sub light speed. The hyper drive engine powered the energy weapons and the shields, so they were also off line; and for a year at least. They had ten small fighter craft to use, should Earth become aware of their presence, and they would be the starship`s main defence, for the cloaking device was also powered by the hyper drive engine.
Finally those engineers who had survived the disaster were able to close off any part of the ship open to space, now the rest of the crew who had survived the tragedy could move freely about the ship and begin to effect repairs where needed, and if possible. Thankfully there were more than half the crew left alive, unfortunately those who died were amongst the most needed, now that the ship needed repairing.
Consul Phairlis had been one of the survivors, resting in his cabin when the Constellation shook and the lights went out aboard the once magnificent space cruiser. The members of the council of the Chosen Ones had also survived, except for the one who had died aboard the starship Swift Response.
Phairlis was one of the people waiting to be released; when the security door was opened, he went in search of Captain Lorinson, to demand to know what had happened. Lorinson was a much-stressed man when Phairlis finally found him; he was standing on the emergency bridge. Even so, when he saw Phairlis stride in he turned to give him a quick update.
“Consul Phairlis, you are here to know what happened, before I give you a quick report let me assure you that the ship is secure, we are all safe.” Lorinson said grimly.
“It is good to hear Captain, but what the hell happened, were we hit by an asteroid?” Phairlis asked.
“No it was the Endeavour, for some reason it exploded and in doing so it badly damaged us. We are without hyper drive, which means that our weapons no longer work, no do we have our cloaking ability, or a defence field, and I am reliably informed that we cannot repair the drive without a great many parts that must come from Magenta.”
Phairlis stood there stunned for a moment but he quickly recovered. “Why can`t we just take the parts we require from one of the other starships in orbit around Uranus, surely we can make them work.” Phairlis asked quizzically.
Lorinson smiled at this. “I have already asked our new chief engineer to look into it, however, he is not that experienced, and the chief engineers aboard the other ships are not of the first rank, so we will have to wait and see.” Lorinson replied.
Just then, a young officer came into the small room with a message. “Captain we have received a message from the Magenta.” The officer said hesitantly. “The two new clone ships, they were both destroyed in two mysterious explosions.”
When Phairlis heard about the destruction of the other two clone ships, he went very quiet for a moment, and then he screamed out his anger, and he was not surprised when Councillor Jorman called for the council of the Chosen Ones to assemble to discuss the future, for he too had heard of the disaster. When the council met Phairlis quickly took over the meeting, he told them about the destruction of the three starships and updated them regarding the state of the Constellation. The other members, when they heard about that the disaster encompassed four of the fleet`s most important starships all erupted in anger, demanding action by Phairlis against whoever was responsible, Councillor Jorman was the most strident.
“This act must have been committed by a Magentan, a traitor who has put the interests of a planet full of cavemen above the future of our people, and I for one want to know just what you are going to do about it, Consul Phairlis?” Councillor Jorman demanded in a loud clear voice.
Phairlis looked from Councillor Jorman to each of the others of the council of the Chosen Ones, silently thanking Jorman for what a historian could easily have thought a pre-arranged question. He stood up and looked grimly at his councillors.
“Members of the council, I will tell you who was responsible for the traitorous act and then I will tell you what I intend to do as regards my plans for the future of our urgent mission.” Phairlis stopped here to ensure that all would be hanging on to his every word.
“The premier traitor behind this is our very own President Mortise, purposely going against Parliament`s lawful decisions and his own promises to our people. Of course he was not here to actually to press the button, no, what he did was to send one or more of his flunkies here to do that, and without a thought for the many Magentan lives he snuffed out.” Phairlis cried out in anger. “In one act of sabotage he thought to set the invasion back by at least ten years. However, he forgot to take me into account when he made his devious plans, and I am not a man to be taken lightly.” His voice boomed out to the assembled leaders of the invasion.
“Members of the council of the Chosen Ones, we will now rely upon the humans working at the water treatment plants, the ones who have been brainwashed, rather than clones, to ensure that we do not lose these ten years, ones that we can ill afford, time would then become our enemy. However, to rely solely upon these humans may well reduce the number of our people able to come to this world. To ensure that this does not happen, and to ensure that our invasion is a success, I am now going to lay before you a new plan, one forced upon us because of the actions of a group of heinous traitors, not mine, the blame must lie with them, not us.” Consul Phairlis stopped here to pick up his glass of water, each council member had one set before him or her; he drank it all down and then refilled his glass from one of the jugs on the table before continuing, his voice now getting louder as he raged against the saboteurs.
“We held off ridding the planet of its intelligent life by other means to salve the conscience of others, but it has been these same liberals who have attempted to stop the invasion from happening, to sentence our civilisation to obscurity, or worse, oblivion.” Consul Phairlis screamed in anger, the eyes of every council member on him as their own anger grew, seemingly affected by his ‘righteous’ anger.
“Now though we will move our operations along a little quicker, a new phase six is about to go into operation, for we cannot afford the delay that the destruction of the three clone ships has brought about. I will now take full command of the invasion; no longer will I obey the orders of our traitorous president.” Phairlis screamed, spitting out the last word, happy to have an excuse to initiate his planned use of the virus against the people of Earth, rather than to use it clandestinely.
“I have had our scientists develop a new strain of one of the sixth planet`s diseases, in case it became necessary, the people of this planet designated it H5N1, but H5N1 was mild compared to the new strain, the new strain will rage for twelve months before mutating into a harmless strain. Our people on the sixth planet, both the clones and those humans who have been brainwashed, will be immunised against the disease, as for the rest of the planet`s population, they will just have to take their chances along with their neighbours.” Phairlis broke off here. Clearly exhausted by the vehemence of his attack he slumped down in his chair.
“Where will the attack start, across the whole planet, or only in one country?” One of the councillors, Rhed Madr asked quietly, secretly aghast at what the Magentan people were about to do.
“In a country designated China, a country that has had similar outbreaks before. From here we will spread the disease westwards through Indo-China and on throug
h the Indian sub-continent, however, with so much air travel throughout the planet I would expect the disease to spread worldwide.” Phairlis replied, slowly recovering from the fervour that his speech had generated within him.
“It will also be a revenge attack against the Chinese government for their murderous attack on our people.” This comment went over well, for they had felt that a retaliatory strike was their chosen right for the Chinese atrocity, as they saw it.
“When will this new outbreak start?” Rhed Madr asked.
“I am told that the new strain will be available in sufficient quantities by tomorrow evening, so the virus will be given to a strike force of Magentans, not clones, and taken down in the attack ship Magenta tomorrow night. After spraying one of the larger towns with the virus, the Magenta will return to orbit and await until the time is right for the disease to spread westwards. The end of the human race is imminent, within five years few of them will be left, the remainder we will exterminate. Then we will send in clean up teams to clear up after them. Our people can begin to move here within ten years from today, by then we must have the planet ready for its new inhabitants.” Phairlis replied.
**********
Ordered to find the traitor who had destroyed the three starships, the head of security began to compile a list of all those who left the Endeavour aboard the Magenta, and journeyed back to Uranus, the list was very short, and one of the names was Doctor Baris, and a call was put out to arrest him. Unfortunately, by the time that Baris heard about it, it had been too late to send samples of the virus and the vaccine to Petras Furling.
Baris was in his cabin aboard the Constellation, he was composing a message to Furling. ‘The three clone ships have all been destroyed, along with the people who worked on them; this should set back the cloning program by at least ten years. The space cruiser Constellation is also damaged, although I do not know the extent of the damage to it, if I can I will update you as regards the Constellation`s condition. There is also one other thing that I must tell of, Consul Phairlis is about to’