Delphi Federation (Delphi in Space Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 The Price of Winning

  Chapter 2 A Hero’s Wakeup Call

  Chapter 3 False Choices

  Chapter 4 What’s a Light-year?

  Chapter 5 Homecoming

  Chapter 6 Cabinet Meeting – Sept 7th

  Chapter 7 Women United

  Chapter 8 Catie’s Alter Ego

  Chapter 9 Testing Testing

  Chapter 10 Press Conference

  Chapter 11 Catie Undercover

  Chapter 12 Science is Boring

  Chapter 13 Cabinet Meeting – Oct 5th

  Chapter 14 To-Do List

  Chapter 15 Doesn’t He Ever Give Up?

  Chapter 16 Blind Date

  Chapter 17 Cabinet Meeting – Oct 26th

  Chapter 18 Probe Deployment

  Chapter 19 Trouble in Guatemala

  Chapter 20 The Situation

  Chapter 21 The Kealoha Solution

  Chapter 22 The Guatemalan Solution

  Chapter 23 Damn that Sam

  Chapter 24 Cabinet Meeting – Dec 7th

  Chapter 25 Asteroid Mission Prep

  Chapter 26 Taking Command

  Chapter 27 Cabinet Meeting – Jan 4th

  Chapter 28 Target Ukraine

  Chapter 29 Cabinet Meeting – Feb 1st

  Chapter 30 Target Ukraine Again

  Chapter 31 Something Has to Change

  Chapter 32 Press Conference

  Delphi Publishing

  Copyright © 2020 Robert D. Blanton

  Cover by Momir Borocki

  [email protected]

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Printed in the United States of America First Printing, 2020.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  Chapter 1

  The Price of Winning

  “Oh lord, you’d think that after fighting off an alien invasion, facing the U.N. would be a cakewalk,” Marc thought as he stood before the U.N. Security Council preparing to answer their questions. “This is worse than facing the Paraxean commander.”

  He wished he could have left it to his ambassador, Margaret Hannaford, but that would have been cruel. The Delphinean fleet had just won the first interstellar war Earth was ever involved in, but he had a feeling he wasn’t going to be overwhelmed with congratulations.

  “Ambassadors,” Marc started. “If I can have your attention. I am here to announce that I have accepted the full and unconditional surrender of the Paraxean rebel forces.”

  “What is the status of our forces?” the U.S. Ambassador asked, more like demanded.

  “The Delphinean fleet and the Paraxean fleet are now in orbit around the solar system,” Marc answered. “Their orbit is at fifty-five AUs, well beyond the orbit of Pluto. Our pilots and crew are being ferried back to Earth via our Oryxes.” Marc’s team from Delphi Nation had led the effort to thwart the invasion by the Paraxeans. He and his brother Blake had discovered a Paraxean starship on the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Hawaii some years earlier. They’d been harvesting the technology from the ship since then to push Earth forward and to prepare it for when the Paraxeans came back to Earth. Of course, the Paraxeans had shown up earlier than hoped for.

  “Why are you not bringing the carriers back?” demanded the U.S. Ambassador.

  “Due to the nature of the engagement, the carriers had to enter a solar orbit,” Marc explained. “Due to the distance of that orbit and the events that occurred during the engagement, the carriers are at the edge of our solar system’s gravity well, as well as the gravity well of any nearby planets. It will take months to bring them back to Earth.”

  “What about all the fighter jets?” the U.S. Ambassador asked.

  “Most of them have been placed in the various flight bays on the carriers where they will be stored,” Marc said.

  “Why can’t you fly them back here?”

  “It takes over one week to fly from the carrier’s location to Earth, that is unreasonable to do in a single-seat fighter.”

  “We demand our share of the fighters,” the ambassador yelled.

  “Sir, I remind you of the agreement made when you joined the alliance,” Marc said, trying to remain calm. “All the ships, fighters, and equipment would remain the property of the Delphi Alliance and under the control of the Nation of Delphi. They will not be dispersed among the participating nations.”

  “Ambassadors, I do remind you that that was the agreement,” the French Ambassador said. He had the privilege of being the head of the Security Council for this month, but he didn’t appear to be enjoying the status.

  “What about the prisoners?” the Russian Ambassador demanded.

  “The prisoners captured during the engagement are being held on the carriers at this time,” Marc said.

  “What about those we captured from Ganymede?” the Russian Ambassador persisted.

  “They have been given permanent resident status in Delphi as a reward for helping us prepare for the invasion,” Marc said as he tried to control his temper. “Some of them are in Delphi City, some in Delphi Station, some of them are remaining with the carriers, and a few are being returned to Delphi City.”

  “How dare you!” the American ambassador yelled.

  “May I remind you that it was a Delphinean commando raid that captured those prisoners,” Marc said.

  “Please, we are here to discuss how to move forward with the surrender,” the French Ambassador said. “Your Excellency, could you tell us about the disposition of the Paraxean colonists?”

  “There are 1.5 million Paraxean colonists who have been in stasis for over one hundred years and did not participate in nor have any knowledge of the invasion,” Marc said. “There are fifty-eight hundred surviving members of the Paraxean military force. The leader of the colonists is out of stasis and should be arriving at Delphi Station in two days.”

  “The United States would like to state that we would be happy to host the Paraxean colonists,” the U.S. Ambassador said. “We are also willing to host the Paraxean prisoners.”

  “Russia would also be willing to host the Paraxeans,” the Russian Ambassador said.

  “I think all of the nations have expressed interest in hosting the Paraxeans,” the French Ambassador said.

  “We would also like to lay claim to the technology aboard the Paraxean ships,” the U.S. Ambassador said.

  “Just shoot me now!” Marc thought.

  Chapter 2

  A Hero’s Wakeup Call

  “Hey Girl, are you going to wake up?” Liz asked as she knocked on the door. She and Catie were sharing Liz’s stateroom on the DSS Enterprise, a space carrier where Liz was the wing commander. There had been a second party the night before to celebrate the victory. Apparently Catie did not learn much from the first party.

  “Go away!” Catie replied.

  “What happened to the girl who only needs four or five hours of sleep?”

  “She drank too much champagne!”

  “Champagne always gives me a headache when I drink too much.”

  “You could have told me that last night,” Catie complained.

  “Didn’t you learn from the last party; you’re not supposed to drink that much, you’re only fourteen, remember.”

  “I remember, and I only had three glasses all night.”

  “Were you paying attention to the fact that w
aiters were refilling everyone’s glasses?”

  “No!”

  “Well, you were the hero of the hour, so they would have tried to take extra care of you. I’m sure you had way more than three glasses.”

  “Just let me go back to sleep, I’ll either wake up without a headache or die.”

  “Come on, get up, that Dr. McDowell is asking for you. We’ll go see Dr. Metra. She can give you a patch that will cure that hangover,” Liz said. “Just don’t start relying on having a cure.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t,” Catie said. “From now on, I’m just doing the toasts.”

  “Move it!”

  “Ugh!” Catie groaned as she headed for the shower.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “How did the experiments with your guy go yesterday day?” Liz asked once Catie had showered and dressed. They were on their way to sickbay to get the hangover cure from Dr. Metra.

  “He’s not my guy!” Catie groaned. Catie’s father had been referring to Dr. McDowell as Catie’s guy ever since she’d recommended he hire him.

  “Whatever, how did the experiments go?”

  “You didn’t hear?”

  “I haven’t heard anything, that’s why I’m asking,” Liz said.

  “Well, they went great, right up until his test vehicle disappeared,” Catie said.

  “It blew up?”

  “No, it disappeared. Poof, one second it’s there, the next it’s gone, no explosion, no big energy spike, just gone.”

  “Well, what are you going to do about that?”

  “We’re building a second test vehicle with a sensor array and a quantum relay on it.”

  “That’s a big investment. Your dad’s going to let you risk a quantum relay?”

  “It’s just one, and we might be onto something,” Catie said. “One relay is a small price to pay if Dr. McDowell has discovered something really huge.”

  “What do you think happened?”

  “Either he sent it someplace, or the gravity drives crushed it into a tiny blob,” Catie said.

  “Crushed it, why would that happen?”

  “Well, he did have the gravity drives pushing against each other. But I’m hoping it just went someplace.”

  “Where would it have gone?” Liz asked. “I assume you couldn’t get any reading from it.”

  “Yeah, no readings, so it either lost its communication system or was sent someplace a few light-days away; otherwise, we’d have picked up its beacon by now.”

  “It would be cool if he figured a way to travel to other star systems without the twenty- to one-hundred-year time-lapse the Paraxeans have been putting up with.”

  “Yeah, that would be so cool. If it is, I’m going to go exploring,” Catie said.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “No, it’ll be fun. You’d come with me, wouldn’t you?”

  “Maybe, but first you have to prove it’s safe.”

  “Duh! We’ll run a bunch more experiments,” Catie said. “Do you want to have lunch after we see the doctor?”

  “Sure, we can talk about tomorrow’s big conference we’re having on what to do with the Paraxeans,” Liz said.

  “Or we could just have fun and talk about going on space missions,” Catie said.

  Chapter 3

  False Choices

  “Welcome, Governor Paratar,” Marc said as he greeted the leader of the Paraxean colonists.

  “Thank you,” Governor Paratar replied. “I wish again to express my apologies for the unlawful acts of Commodore Warlmag.”

  “I accept your apology on behalf of Delphi, but I cannot speak for the rest of the planet, although the national governments seem ready to accept it,” Marc said. “Now, let’s begin this discussion. I believe you’ve met the members of my security council who are still with the fleet; they will be joining us via video conferencing. Here on Delphi Station, we have our secretary of foreign affairs, Cer Samantha Newman, our secretary of science, Cer Nikola Zelbar, our secretary of security, Cer Kal Kealoha, and our secretary of defense, Admiral Paul Michaels.”

  “I am pleased to meet all of you,” Governor Paratar said.

  “Is everyone on the Enterprise linked in?” Marc asked.

  “We’re here,” Blake, Catie, Liz, and Dr. Metra said as their images appeared on everyone’s specs as if they were in the room.

  “That means we’re ready to begin the meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to decide how we help the Paraxean colonists as well as deal with the Paraxean prisoners,” Marc said. “But before we begin, I’d like to give Governor Paratar a chance to explain what happened to the colony fleet.”

  “Thank you, Mr. President,” the governor said. “As many of you already know, our colony fleet set out from Paraxea approximately one hundred of your years ago. We were fifty years into the voyage when the fleet was attacked by some unknown alien race. They caught us completely by surprise, and they had a well-thought-out plan.

  “They made a single pass through our fleet at one-third the speed of light, crossing us at ninety degrees from our direction of travel. They targeted the ship with the stasis pods; we thought it was because it was the largest. Hundreds of their fighters passed it using plasma beams to weaken the hull. They also targeted the cargo ship which was carrying most of the supplies and equipment that we had brought to start the colony. Then they destroyed its engines and somehow attached a drive system to it that slowed the ship down. Apparently, the cargo ship was their real target.”

  “How would they slow the ship down?” Blake asked.

  “After examining the sensor logs, our scientists surmised that they attached small fusion drives with enough reaction mass to slow the ship down by ten percent,” the governor explained. “With our weakened hull, the colony ship could not adjust its velocity without risking multiple hull breaches. We were forced to leave the cargo ship behind. Commodore Warlmag and his ships were forced to decide between trying to recover the cargo ship or staying with the colony ship to protect us from further attack. They chose to stay with us.”

  “What do you think happened to the cargo ship?” Blake asked.

  “If they followed protocol, which their DI would have ensured, they would have destroyed the antimatter drive, fusing it into a solid block. Then they would have destroyed the quantum relays,” Governor Paratar said.

  “Because?”

  “Paraxea jealously guards the secret of the quantum relays. We have traded a few with other civilizations that we trust, but they are such a big advantage in any conflict that we refuse to allow them to fall into the hands of potential enemies. The same is true for the antimatter reactors. Not all civilizations have them.

  “We recovered several escape pods, about half the crew. They confirmed that the protocol was being followed before they ejected. We don’t know what happened to the rest.”

  “Thanks for that,” Blake said. “Go on, after you got away from the attackers.”

  “With our weakened hull, the colony ship would not be able to maneuver as we approached the binary-star system we were to slingshot around, nor would it be able to decelerate when it reached our destination. Therefore, the scientists came up with a plan to segment the ship and place it on an asteroid. We found one with the necessary integrity to allow the gravity drives to maneuver it and to accelerate and decelerate it as necessary.”

  “So how did that lead to the invasion of Earth?” Admiral Michaels asked.

  “I’m now to that point. First, we realized that without the cargo ship, we would not be able to colonize a new planet. I decided that our only alternative was to return to Paraxea. When I gave the order and returned to stasis, the captain and a few of the other leaders of the colony mission decided that returning to Paraxea was not an option. Commodore Warlmag knew Commander Centag of the Sakira, and had been in contact with him. Between them, they came up with a plan to come to Earth and, as you say, invade.” The Sakira was the starship that Marc and Blake had found underwater near Hawaii. Commander
Centag was the XO who had killed the ship’s captain in an attempt to take over the Sakira.

  “Why did your fleet have that battleship?” Admiral Michaels asked.

  “It didn’t. After they came up with the plan to come to Earth, apparently Commodore Warlmag contacted the captain of the battleship and convinced him to join them. It was guarding another colony that had been established on a planet that is between Paraxea and the planet we were heading toward. They gathered a lot of colonists from that colony, and traveled to join us. They were able to drive the ship hard enough to catch up with us since we were so much slower with the asteroid,” the governor explained.

  “Thank you for that explanation,” Marc said. “With that, we can move forward with the purpose of the meeting. Governor, we would appreciate any suggestions you have about the prisoners as well the colonists.”

  “I will be happy to provide any help that I can,” Governor Paratar said. Everyone’s Comm was providing a translation of the governor’s words. The governor’s Comm had been upgraded by ADI, so it was able to provide a translation for him.

  “Somewhat to my surprise, all the various nations have expressed a willingness to host the Paraxean colonists as well as the prisoners,” Marc said.

  “That is a surprise,” Liz said.

  “It shouldn’t be,” Samantha said. “They’re after the technology.”

  “That is what I suspect,” Marc said. “They believe by having access to the Paraxeans, especially their scientists, that they will be able to learn and recreate the technology from Paraxea. The dissemination of that technology is of grave concern to me. We have been trying to introduce it in a controlled manner to avoid too big a disruption to Earth’s economy as well as to avoid war breaking out between the various nations over the military technology.”

  “I’m not sure that’s going to be as big a problem as you think,” Dr. Nikola said.

  “Please explain,” Marc said.

  “I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Cer Masarg, whose specialties are physics and astrophysics. I’ve found that he didn’t seem to have any better understanding of the physics involved in the gravity drive or the reactors than I did,” Dr. Nikola said. “I’ve also spent time talking to the various engineers. I’m sure they are all competent at their jobs, but most of their knowledge seems to be about how to maintain the systems, which parts to order, and how to replace them. They didn’t show a strong grasp of the underlying technology.”