Conquest of Earth (Stellar Conquest Series) by David VanDyke Page B
Authors: David VanDyke
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call the Scourge. They make Meme seem pleasant by comparison, for they don’t merely conquer and enslave. They ruthlessly wipe out all higher life forms and fill every planet with their teeming billions. Swarms of their ships are reported to appear without warning near stars, and then attack outward.”
“What a load of bullshit,” Ford scoffed. “Appear how? They must have planted this story to throw us off. Buy time.”
“I have to wonder about that too,” said Fleede. “Could this be disinformation?”
“That’s unlikely,” Leslie said, “because we intercepted the report before the word of Conquest ’s impending return or its upgraded technology reached the solar system. There’s no reason for the Meme to fabricate such a story if they still believed they were winning. No, this was a general biolaser beamcast from a Meme deep space communications relay, and is actually over a hundred years old. Unfortunately there is no video, just text.”
“But you said they just appear near stars,” Fleede pressed. “Does that mean they have a stardrive of some kind? To outside observers, Conquest seems to just appear when it drops pulse.”
“The report postulates they have a faster-than-light drive, or perhaps some kind of artificial wormhole gate. Something that allows them to show up without traversing intervening normal space.”
“Oh, this is really getting thick,” Ford said, throwing up his hands. “Nothing has ever actually been shown to move faster than light.”
“The math says it’s possible. A theoretical warp drive has been on the books since the twentieth century,” Quan Ekara said.
“Yes, but it takes the entire power output of a star to make it work!” Ford retorted. Quan and the others stared at Ford until his eyes widened. “Oh.”
Leslie lifted her head imperiously. “Yes, oh . It stands to reason that somehow they tap into a star’s power – fusion, gravity, even antimatter – to make their FTL drive work. And we have no information on how much faster than light it moves them – twice as fast? A thousand times? Instantaneously?”
“That really doesn’t matter in the short term, though,” Absen said. “This report, if true, changes everything. Everything ,” he emphasized, rapping his knuckles on the table.
“Have the Meme ever beaten them?” Ford asked.
Leslie said, “Sometimes, it seems. When they have enough force waiting to hit them early, right when they appear. But when that happens, within a year or two another, much larger invasion force appears, and then another, until the defenders are overwhelmed.”
“Poetic justice for the bastards, I think,”’ Ford said. “The galactic food chain. They do it to us, and these Scourges do it to them.”
“But now the Scourges are gonna do it to us,” Bull ben Tauros said from across the table.
“Yeah, so what’s the plan, Skipper?” Ford asked, turning to Absen.
“That’s what I called you all here to talk about. We’ll get into specifics later, but I need to hear all your ideas about our overall course of action.”
“We gin up and fight!” Ford said. “Worst case, we can escape with the TacDrive, go get Desolator and his buddies, and then come back and kick their asses.”
“And leave Earth to its fate? There won’t be anything left to salvage,” Absen said, “and if they can tell where we went, they might actually be able get to Gliese 370 ahead of us . No, we have to try to beat them here and now. These Scourges will wipe out all life. This isn’t about winning a fight. It’s about preserving humanity. If they show up here, they’ll show up at Gliese 370 and maybe anywhere else.”
Commander Ekara cleared his throat. “We have to get ahold of the FTL technology. Assuming their fleet doesn’t totally outclass us, it’s their strategic mobility that spells our doom. If we can reverse engineer it, we can use it or defeat it. That has to be our number one goal.”
“No, our number one
“What a load of bullshit,” Ford scoffed. “Appear how? They must have planted this story to throw us off. Buy time.”
“I have to wonder about that too,” said Fleede. “Could this be disinformation?”
“That’s unlikely,” Leslie said, “because we intercepted the report before the word of Conquest ’s impending return or its upgraded technology reached the solar system. There’s no reason for the Meme to fabricate such a story if they still believed they were winning. No, this was a general biolaser beamcast from a Meme deep space communications relay, and is actually over a hundred years old. Unfortunately there is no video, just text.”
“But you said they just appear near stars,” Fleede pressed. “Does that mean they have a stardrive of some kind? To outside observers, Conquest seems to just appear when it drops pulse.”
“The report postulates they have a faster-than-light drive, or perhaps some kind of artificial wormhole gate. Something that allows them to show up without traversing intervening normal space.”
“Oh, this is really getting thick,” Ford said, throwing up his hands. “Nothing has ever actually been shown to move faster than light.”
“The math says it’s possible. A theoretical warp drive has been on the books since the twentieth century,” Quan Ekara said.
“Yes, but it takes the entire power output of a star to make it work!” Ford retorted. Quan and the others stared at Ford until his eyes widened. “Oh.”
Leslie lifted her head imperiously. “Yes, oh . It stands to reason that somehow they tap into a star’s power – fusion, gravity, even antimatter – to make their FTL drive work. And we have no information on how much faster than light it moves them – twice as fast? A thousand times? Instantaneously?”
“That really doesn’t matter in the short term, though,” Absen said. “This report, if true, changes everything. Everything ,” he emphasized, rapping his knuckles on the table.
“Have the Meme ever beaten them?” Ford asked.
Leslie said, “Sometimes, it seems. When they have enough force waiting to hit them early, right when they appear. But when that happens, within a year or two another, much larger invasion force appears, and then another, until the defenders are overwhelmed.”
“Poetic justice for the bastards, I think,”’ Ford said. “The galactic food chain. They do it to us, and these Scourges do it to them.”
“But now the Scourges are gonna do it to us,” Bull ben Tauros said from across the table.
“Yeah, so what’s the plan, Skipper?” Ford asked, turning to Absen.
“That’s what I called you all here to talk about. We’ll get into specifics later, but I need to hear all your ideas about our overall course of action.”
“We gin up and fight!” Ford said. “Worst case, we can escape with the TacDrive, go get Desolator and his buddies, and then come back and kick their asses.”
“And leave Earth to its fate? There won’t be anything left to salvage,” Absen said, “and if they can tell where we went, they might actually be able get to Gliese 370 ahead of us . No, we have to try to beat them here and now. These Scourges will wipe out all life. This isn’t about winning a fight. It’s about preserving humanity. If they show up here, they’ll show up at Gliese 370 and maybe anywhere else.”
Commander Ekara cleared his throat. “We have to get ahold of the FTL technology. Assuming their fleet doesn’t totally outclass us, it’s their strategic mobility that spells our doom. If we can reverse engineer it, we can use it or defeat it. That has to be our number one goal.”
“No, our number one
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