Danielle was going back to work from her lunch break when her com beeped. “Hello.”
“Mrs. Gardner, I have an appointment for you that I would like you to make before you report back to work,” her boss Chief Inspector Connor said.
“Yes sir. Where is it?”
“Report to the Central Government Tower and the front desk will give you directions. The Special Forces Team has requested your presence.”
Danielle was suddenly alert, “Do you know what the meeting is about?”
“They didn’t offer to tell me and I certainly wasn’t going to ask. You’re expected within the hour.”
“Yes sir, I’ll head that way now.” Danielle was nervous, what could they possibly want? She banked her floater next to the World Bank building and then lifted seventy levels to join the traffic headed toward the Directorate Tower. She looked out across Central City as she gained altitude and marveled at the beauty of the city. Central City stretched from horizon to horizon and covered most of the central part of what used to be the old United States before it was destroyed in the third world war more than 1,000 years in the past. She turned on her violet emergency lights and screamed by two heavy haulers moving a small housing unit. She passed two of the 3,000 foot high government buildings then saw the main tower off in the distance rising more than 4,000 feet above the ground. She thought a minute and then decided to ask her husband what was going on. “Tag,” She thought, “have you got a minute?”
“Hi, my love, I’ll always make time for you.”
“I know you’re trying to wrap up after the fleet action and I hate to interrupt you but do you know why the SFT has requested a meeting with me?”
Tag was silent for a moment then thought, “No. They’ve said nothing to me about it. Do you want me to find out?”
“No, you’re their leader and if I use you, then I feel I’d be using you for personal reasons. If they wanted you to know, wouldn’t they have told you?”
“Possibly, or they might just be respecting my schedule.” He paused a moment and thought back to her, “Somehow I don’t think so. Contact me after the meeting and let me know what’s going on.”
“I will. When are you leaving with the fleet for the Cainth Empire?”
“Soon, the ships have to be rearmed and we’re going to replace the damaged ships with other ships from our reserves whose crews haven’t had any combat experience. Be sure to interrupt me and let me know what’s going on. I’ll be here a while.”
“I will, Love.” Danielle was always amazed at the ability she and Tag had been given by Atlas to hear each other’s thoughts where ever they were. Then she had an idea, “Atlas, did you hear all of that?”
There was momentary silence and then Atlas responded, “Yes. How did you know I was listening in?”
“I felt you. Besides, what else would a precocious ancient alien ship do with its spare time?”
Atlas was an intelligent ancient Alfont Ship that Tag had discovered in a cave on the moon while attempting to escape capture by the Directorate. The Alfont were the most technologically advanced race in the history of the Galaxy but had mysteriously disappeared more than sixty million years ago. Any race that found one of their artifacts was sentenced to be destroyed by the Alliance of Worlds to prevent anyone from getting an advantage in weapons technology; discovery of one of their artifacts meant total annihilation. When Tag touched the dead Alfont in the cave it had set off a tone that could be heard throughout the universe and the Alliance had tracked it on a line that passed through Earth and as a result was now in the process of attempting to occupy the planet. The sole reason that they were going to occupy the planet instead of destroying it outright was that Atlas had caused them to lose two of their lines of origin. The Earth was located on the line that remained but they did not know for certain that the tone originated from Earth. “You want to know if I know why the SFT wants you, right,” Atlas said.
“My, aren’t you the mind reader?”
“Well, I can’t help you; that group is pretty much invisible to me. Their psychic skills are strong and I don’t have a link into their meetings if Tag isn’t there. Sorry, but I’m sure it’s not anything to worry about.”
“Ok, thanks any way, Atlas.”
“You’re welcome, Danielle, any time,” Atlas thought back at her and broke the connection.
“He’s sounding more and more human in his thoughts every time I communicate with him,” Danielle thought. She arrived at the Central Government Tower, landed her floater in front of the building, and walked in to the front desk where she saw a tall man standing next to the security officers. “I’m Danielle A. Gardner and I’m,” she started but was interrupted by the tall man.
“Welcome, Mrs. Gardner, I’m here to take you upstairs; if you’ll come with me, please.”
Danielle followed the tall man into the lift and exited on the 336 ^ th floor where she entered a room with clear crystal glass on all sides of the room. She could see the huge city in all directions and it was beautiful from this height. Danielle noticed a table off to the right where a group of people were sitting and she walked over and stood in front of the SFT Team dressed in her Security Committee blue uniform with her blond hair falling to her shoulders looking both professional and lovely. The members of the SFT, however, could see the trouble in her blue eyes as she furrowed her brow and looked at them. They were sitting in a semi circle around a table whispering among themselves. A small woman sitting in the center stood and said, “I’m Alesia Patel and I’m the designated leader of the SFT this month. Welcome and we appreciate your coming on such short notice,”
“I’m available anytime you need me,” Danielle responded nervously.
Please sit down,” and the small woman indicated a chair facing them and Danielle sat down. “We know you’re probably curious about why we asked you here and I’m going to let Sung Lea Yung explain our reasons to you.”
She looked to the right as a woman stood up and said, “Most people don’t know how the members of our group here are chosen. We’re called Special Forces because every one of us is endowed with some form of psychic ability. Our talents are very special and taken together constitute a very important tool for protecting mankind. It was Tam Dillon,” and she looked to her right at an old man with grey hair and mustache stood up and nodded to Danielle, “that felt your husband’s psychic aura and began our quest to find him and bring him into our group. Tag leads this group because his psychic strength and talents are superior to any other member of this team. But more than that, I told the group that the Human Race was doomed unless he was made our leader. You see, my particular talent is that I can psychically see possible futures and in every future I envisioned we were destroyed except the one where Tag was made our leader. My visions didn’t reveal if we ultimately survive, but it didn’t show us being annihilated in the near future. Now my visions have become clearer and other details have been revealed. Those details involve you.”
Danielle listened to the young woman and noticed that she had a presence that could almost be felt. She was tall for a human of Asian ancestry and her green eyes were unusually bright. She had on a navy blue jumpsuit and looked Danielle in the eye as she talked. “Me! Wait a minute. You’re able to tell the future,” Danielle said changing the subject trying to absorb what she was hearing.
“No. I’m able to see possible futures and any of them can happen depending on the outcome of critical events. Our group exists to try and do things that cause the best possible future to take place and avoid making a critical error when one of those events happens. Once a new future starts happening, then new possible futures appear. Do you understand?”
Danielle furrowed her brow, “Yes, I think I do. When you made Tag your leader the other possible futures without him in that position were no longer possible but there are other possible directions the future can go after the decision was made. Is that right?”
“Yes,” Sung Lea nodded approvingly, “I see you understand. I try to find the critical events that cause multiple futures and make sure we do what causes the most successful future to take place. There are new possible futures where we are still destroyed even with him as our leader. The best possible future in my visions right now has you involved heavily in it.”
Danielle was nervous about asking the next question but she said anyway, “What kind of involvement?”
“You are going to have to be with your husband at every battle or confrontation with the Alliance. Your job with the Security Division will end with this meeting and you will be made a member of the SFT. Tam Dillon will be stepping down partly because we may only have eight members and he has requested to be replaced to spend time with his wife in their latter years.”
Danielle looked at the group for a long moment then said, “I thought you had to have strong psychic skills to be a member of your group.”
Sung Lea looked Danielle directly in the eye and said, “Danielle, you know you have psychic skills. You are able to see the truth in any situation and quite frankly, your skills are as strong, or stronger, than anyone else on this group other than your husband. I think you already know this at some level. After the initial contact with Thomas Gardner your psychic skills increased dramatically.”
“What do you mean increased?”
“Danielle, we are able to see psychic auras of people with psychic skills. Before you made contact with Tag, we did not sense yours. Afterwards, your aura was clearly visible and is getting stronger. We really don’t understand how that happened but we know that it did.”
That statement surprised Danielle but then she thought, “Why didn’t you discuss this with Tag before telling me?”
Alesia stood and said, “Because he will resist this with all his power; he will not willingly allow you to be put in danger especially where a fleet action is happening. However, I must get you and he to understand that unless you are present with him our race will die within six months and possibly sooner than that if you miss the Cainth invasion.”
Danielle looked into the woman’s face then back at Sung Lea; she could feel the truth of what they were saying. She also knew with her talent for seeing the truth that Sung Lea would never lie about something so important. “So what must I do?”
Alesia gave a heavy sigh and said, “We have an Empire Class Battleship waiting in orbit to take you to him. You will need to move quickly because he will be jumping out of system within eighteen hours. We will try to delay him until you arrive, but he may not cooperate because of his fear for your safety. If we have to we will have your ship follow him.”
“Atlas,” Danielle thought, “can you get me there in time?”
“Plan to leave your living quarters within the hour.”
“Thank you for your offer of transportation, but I’ll arrange my own,” Danielle told the group.
They all started speaking at once and she said over them, “I’ll get there in time. If I’m not there in six hours, then you can provide a battleship.”
That silenced them. They all looked at her then looked at each other. Then Alesia said, “It will be done as you say. However, nothing can get there in six hours; star drives do not work this close to the sun and nothing can go faster than the speed of light in normal space. Are you certain of arriving in time? This is a critical event.”
Danielle could tell they all had numerous questions about how she could possibly get there so quickly, but Sung Lea said, “This is not something we need to inquire about. Let her go her way in peace. Danielle, you are now co-leader of the SFTwith your husband. The only authority over you is yourself. We will notify the Director and Tag of this change in six hours and 20 minutes.”
“Thank you but now I must go home and pack.”
“We have an emergency shuttle on the roof waiting to take you. You’ll arrive at your quarters in less than ten minutes. We will inform Inspector Connor about the change.”
“How did you know I would go?”
Sung Lea smiled, “This is the future all the others branch off. This meeting is the critical event. I’ve already seen the other futures begin to disappear when you entered the room; it’s not in you to refuse to help when you’re needed. Contact us upon your arrival with the fleet.”
Danielle turned and ran from the room.
“Admiral, do we have any idea how many ships the Cainth Empire has remaining in their fleet,” Tag asked as he replayed the battle counting the Cainth ships that had been destroyed. “I think we’ve destroyed eight hundred in both battles.”
Kosiev looked at his screen and said, “That’s accurate but we have no idea of their total numbers. I would think that they would have as many as we do but we’re been overbuilding because of their threat. I don’t really think they have been threatened for hundreds of years and it’s an economic drain to maintain a huge fleet. I would guess between 1,800 and 3,000,” Kosiev answered.
Tag reached over and poured himself a stimulant drink and leaned back in his chair. “Let’s try and figure this out. Would they use half their ships to ensure our destruction?”
Kosiev thought a minute and looked back at the screen and rewound it to the frame of the Alliance fleet as they emerged into our solar system. We know they sent two hundred of their ships to Ross. The remaining Alliance ships from all participants totaled about 1,200 that came back from the destruction of the Grendap. I think it would be safe to assume that they would use 20 % in their initial plans.”
“Why not more ships?” Tag asked.
“Remember, they had no idea of our number of ships. They wouldn’t feel threatened enough to use more plus their colonial empire would require some of the fleets presence. They thought we were limited to two space ports and their estimate would be low if they used that to figure our numbers. I think 20 % is about right initially. Once they lost the two hundred ships at Ross, then their threat estimate went up and they sent an additional four hundred ships. If four hundred represents 20 % then they should have 1,200 plus those that escaped. So a good guess would be between thirteen hundred and eighteen hundred remaining.”
“Admiral, do we need more ships than the two hundred survivors? I really don’t want the Alliance to think we have more than the three hundred and fifty we used in the last battle. If we show up with more than two hundred then there will be questions about our total that I would prefer to delay. Is the mix of ships the right ratio?”
“Our ratio is actually stronger than the original mix because the majority of the ships we lost were cruisers and destroyers. We had fifty Empire Class Battleships at the start of the battle and lost nine. The Alliance ships that jumped to safety at the end of the battle saw the ten battleships we used to destroy the sentries in the outer system as they moved in to assist in the mop up so we can include them in our totals.” Kosiev rubbed his chin and said, “Our seven squadrons will now have thirty ships instead of fifty but one third of them will be battleships now instead of one of five. I actually think that this is a better number to manage than fifty. The ratio of battleships to the others will make it easier to discharge the screens of the support ships. Now every battleship will have only two ships to support instead of four. The majority of our losses were due to ships that would have been used to discharge other’s screens weren’t available after they had been destroyed.”
“Did we learn anything else from our tactics,” Tag asked?
“Yes we did. In both of the battles so far we have had our ships preselect targets and rush in and attack them. As a result, our ships lost contact with the battleships that would decharge their screens, which led to their destruction. We are now going to do it another way. We have found that Alliance tactics are to try and gang up on our Battleships. It’s no longer necessary to chase them, they will come to us. In our next battle, we will hold our line together and go thru the middle of their formations. The two smaller ships will place themselves above and below to make maximum use of the larger ship’s screen. They will maintain that position thru out the conflict.”
“Then you’ve reorganized the makeup of the squadrons and practiced the new maneuvers.”
“Yes and our rearming should be completed in two hours. The provisions will be completed an hour later.”
“Then we should be ready to leave shortly,” Tag said. “I’ll inform the Director. I’m also going to have an additional hundred ships ready to jump to support us in the event we have misjudged their number of ships.”
“That’s a good idea but why only a hundred? Why don’t you make it two hundred ships?” Kosiev suggested
Tag looked at the display and said, “Good idea. Why take a risk when we would have to reveal we have more ships anyway if we called them in. Let’s make it three hundred and they can be learning the new attack tactics while they’re waiting. You might also get Fleet operations and start training the other 6,000 ships on those tactics.” Tag lifted his com and said, “Open a channel to Central Command; I would like to talk with them about the additional ships.” He sat and tapped his foot to the rhythm of warships exploding on his screen. Then he remembered and thought, “I wonder what they wanted with Danielle?”
Danielle arrived home and rushed in to pack her bags. She looked in her closets and they were empty. “Atlas, have you been busy?”
“Yes, Danielle. I’ve already transported your belongings and you can choose on the way to the fleet what you want to take; I’ll return the rest.”
“Where are you?”
“Just a moment, I think the SFT are curious about your method of departure. The shuttle that brought you here has a camera on your quarters and is remaining stationary above your dwelling. Go in your bathroom and close the door. I’ll extend a corridor you can walk thru to leave.”
Danielle did as he asked and when she closed the door she saw a round hole in the wall extending toward the balcony. She entered it and walked into Atlas’ port. “They couldn’t see me could they, Atlas?”
“No, and they are going to wonder after some time has gone by why you haven’t come out.”
“Oh, well. You can’t know everything,” Danielle said as she started going thru her belongings selecting what she was going to take. “How are you going to get me to Tag without being seen?”
“Pretty much the same way; I’ll run a corridor into Tags cabin on the Washington and you just walk in with your bags. It will be up to you to explain how you got there. You might want to finish packing your bags now so you can take them with you. We should be there in less than ten minutes”
“Holy groad, Atlas; you can get to Jupiter that quick.”
“I’m going to jump there this time. So hurry up and get ready to leave.”
“Tag was right; you really don’t have a jump limit. I’m glad that everyone else has to be outside Jupiter’s orbit to use a star drive otherwise we would have no warning of uninvited guests.”
“True and no one else is even close to the technology necessary to do it. Alright here we go.”
One moment Danielle was looking at the building housing her living quarters and then she was alongside the Washington beyond Jupiter’s orbit. “Atlas, you big showoff; you mean you can jump right out of a planet’s atmosphere. Whatever method you use, it’s obviously not affected by gravity; you are truly amazing.”
“Thanks, you’re making my hull swell; the corridor is ready. I’ll be listening in, this should be very interesting. Call me if you need my help,” and Danielle could have sworn that in her mind she heard the ship laugh at her.
Danielle walked thru the corridor and emerged into Tags cabin. She knew it was his because of her picture on the writing table. “Tag,” she thought.
“Yes, Darling,” He replied.
“Is there anywhere where you can communicate privately?”
“Yes, in my quarters, I’ll go there now.”
“That would be good, dear.”
Tag walked about 50 yards and took the lift two levels down and entered his room to find Danielle lying on the bed smiling at him. His mouth fell open and all he could do was stare at her. “You told me to interrupt you,” Danielle said.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m going with you.” Danielle said.
“No you’re not. This is entirely too dangerous for you to be here. Atlas, is this your doing?”
“Thomas Anglo Gardner, sit down and listen. Focus on what I’m saying and try to understand it is important you see why I’m here. The SFT have sent me to be with you because Sung Lea says if I don’t then humanity will be annihilated with six months. Our best possible future is with me at your side during the upcoming battles.”
“I don’t care what she says; we’re not going to do it. I’ll override them.”
“Atlas,” Danielle said, “Open a channel to the SFT.”
“No you don’t…” Tag started but then the seven members were on the com screen.
‘You were right,” Danielle said. “He’s not being cooperative. Would you kindly explain to him what’s happening and the new chain of command?”
The entire group of psychics looked at Danielle stunned speechless that she was already there in less than an hour from their meeting. Sung Lea visibly composed herself, then stood up and began explaining her visions. He asked questions and Danielle could see after a few minutes that the resistance was going out of him. Finally, he asked, “What is she going to do that’s so important to our survival?”
“We wondered the same thing when we made you our leader but according to Admiral Kosiev you have had a huge impact on our successes so far. We don’t know what she will add, but we all agree it’s going to be critical that she does. So, she has been made co-leader of the SFT with you.”
“What!”
“Tag, the two of you should communicate and agree on what ever course of action you plan to take. Do you think her advice is worthless?” Sung Lea asked.
“No, I always go to her on the hard decisions because of her insight.” Tag sat in his chair and stared across the room at the woman he loved with all his being and knew that he had to follow Sung Lea’s direction even though he feared for his wife’s safety. Finally he smiled and said, “Well, there are benefits to having her here and somehow we will make this work. Have you announced the change in leadership?”
“No we were waiting for Danielle to arrive; we planned to do it in six hours however, we see that we can move that timetable up. We hoped you would see reason and we’ll make the announcement now.” Then Sung Lea looked at Danielle with an expression that showed immense curiosity, “Danielle, you arrived there in less than an hour. I do not know of any possible way that could have happened. It feels eerily similar to what Tag did in the battle for Rossville; maybe you’ll tell us how you managed to do that?” Sung Lea said with raised eyebrows.
Danielle smiled and said, “I can walk very, very fast.”
“Good day,” Sung Lea smiled and the screen went blank.
“Why didn’t you tell me before you came out here?”
“You told me to interrupt you,” she said with a sly smile. “So I’m going to interrupt you. And she walked over and put her arms around his neck.”
Just before he kissed her he thought, “Atlas, how could you allow her to be placed in this kind of danger?”
“What danger?” Atlas said. “She has the same shield you possess. There’s not a weapon in the Alliance arsenal that could harm either of you. She has to be here. I believe Sung Lea knows what she’s talking about and if you look deep inside yourself, you’ll see it too.”
Tag forced himself to relax; he knew she was going to be ok, and then he gave her all of his attention, “Beauty and brains, what a combo!”