The Legend of Earth

Chapter 28



After catching about an hour’s sleep, Admiral Allen awoke restless and groggy and went to the wardroom for some coffee and a sandwich. It was nearing oh-four-thirty hours and he’d been up for going on thirty hours, all except for the brief nap he’d just taken. The excitement of receiving the message from Adam Cain had diminished somewhat, or it could have just been from his lack of sleep. Nothing much sparked his interest in his current zombie-like state of awareness.

But then the 1-MC in the wardroom sounded. A return message had been received and his presence was requested in CIC, immediately.

Nate knew something was up the moment he entered the room. Even in the dim light of CIC he could see that the solemn grouping of men and women standing around RM1 Cobb at the comm console all appeared to have the blood drained from their faces. Is it just the lighting? Allen wondered as he met the frowns and round eyes of his shipmates.

The Admiral wasn’t one for beating around the bush. “What happened? This doesn’t look good.” He looked down at Cobb.

“Sir, Captain Cain has reported that the Earth is about to be hit with a nuclear strike by another alien race, not the Juireans or the Klin.”

The petty officer’s trembling voice betrayed his attempt at a straight-forward, professional report. Nate Allen was stunned, but he tried not to show it. He placed a hand on the shoulder of the younger enlisted man and said, “Please play the message for me, Mr. Cobb.” He tried to keep his voice as calm and reassuring as possible, however, once the message was through playing, Admiral Nate Allen had joined the rest of those in CIC in having all the blood drain from his face.

“Cobb, open a link to the Earth immediately. I will record a message, and then attach Cain’s to it. Do it now.”

Allen followed Cain’s advice and sent the message off to Earth before recording a return video message to him. It would take four hours for the message to reach Earth, and then another for a response. The fleet was constantly receiving and sending messages back to their homeworld, so any news from Earth would only be four hours behind. So far they’d received no information regarding an attack on the planet. Hopefully the four-hour delay in warning them would not be too late.

But Allen also knew – better than most – that simply receiving the warning didn’t guarantee that the Earth could prevent such an attack. There were so many plans and preparations to be put in place. There was an entire planet to defend, and they had no idea from where the attack would come – except that it would come from space. The attackers would be in ships just like theirs, so how could they be detected? How many ships were in the strike force, and will it be a tactical or a suicide attack? There were just so many unknowns, so many variables.

Allen felt impotent. All he could do was record a bunch of suggestions and send them off to Earth, where thousands of other minds, just a brilliant as he, would be working on the same problem. Being stuck way out here on the other side of the galaxy meant that he would be unable to see real-time data or fully assess the situation, and he wouldn’t be able to witness the results of any plans that were implemented. Everything he would receive – data, sit reps, updates – would all come four hours late, if ever.

If these new aliens – the Kracori, whoever they are – were successful, then Allen would order the fleet back to Earth immediately, followed by nine months of worry, stress and anger which would take a heavy toll on him and his entire fleet.

The message they’d received from Cain had been audio-only, but in the rather disorganized and confused recording he’d heard the voices of both Lt. Andy Tobias and Chief Geoffrey Rutledge, two of the SEALs from ST6 that he’d known intimately for many years. That was really good news – if anything about the message could be considered good. He’d also heard the voice of Sherri Valentine, who Allen knew to be Adam Cain’s on-again, off-again companion. Of the group of Humans who had gone missing several months before, that only left petty officer John Tindal and the civilian Riyad Tarazi unaccounted for. Hopefully they were with Cain as well.

All further communication with Cain and his team would be video and RM1 Cobb had calculated the turn time for messages at around seventy-five minutes. That wasn’t bad, but it did mean they were still a couple of months out from a reunion, if one was even in the cards. If the Earth was successfully attacked then Cain would not have a fleet to rendezvous with. By then, Allen and his fleet would be well on their way back to Earth.