or her original crew, remain a mystery. The ship’s technology is hundreds, if not thousands of years in advance of anything I’ve come across. Without Ricket’s help it wouldn’t have been possible to get her back into space, let alone traversing the universe. But there is far more that we don’t know about this vessel than what we do know.
Until now, I’ve never let her out of my sight. If she were to fall into the hands of the Craing… The implications are staggering. Imagine Adolph Hitler, mid-way through
World War II, being offered advanced weapons’ technology hundreds, if not thousands, of years in advance of the Allied forces. There would have been no stopping him. For some reason, the Alliance has chosen me to lead our forces against the hostile aggression by the Craing. And subsequently we’ve pooled our forces from planets in multiple sectors, even those thousands of light-years from Earth. We are a force of approximately two thousand warships.
I fear my days here are numbered. My location is no longer a secret. It seems we have a mole in our mist, either here on this planet among our ranks, or there on The Lilly. That’s something you’ll need to deal with. Moving forward, I only hope what we have planned will be enough. We’ll find out soon enough. If the Craing make it through our lines, no doubt Earth will be taken. Get off the planet and come to the Altar System. One more thing—the crew is inexperienced. I’m sorry, but we just could not afford to leave our best there, while the Craing are here knocking at our door.
Properly manned, The Lilly would have a crew of about 200. You have a ragtag crew of about 30. Not necessarily all misfits, but we had to pull from where we could: A civilian doctor from Jhardon, a planet here in the Altar System, from Planetary University; ground forces officers; several men released from the brig; even an athletic sports personality. By the time you come on board, they will have undergone HyperLearning, which will help. Both Lieutenant Perkins and Ricket will bring you up to speed on everything else. Good luck, son.
Dad
Admiral Perry Reynolds, United Planetary Alliance
Jason replaced the captain’s clusters as well as the letter back into its envelope.
“Thanks for delivering this to me, Lieutenant Perkins. We obviously have a lot to talk about.” Together, the three of them hustled back down the rocky tunnel. Jason looked back at Ricket and the lieutenant. “Right now I need more information,” Jason said. “Do you have access to any of the TV news feeds from above?”
“Yes, of course, we’ve been monitoring events as they’ve unfolded. It’s apparent that this isn’t a planetary-wide invasion—at least not yet. We believe they are right here, specifically in this part of North America, looking for The Lilly.”
“The Craing followed her here?”
“No, that would not be possible,” Ricket chimed in. “As your father explained, there is a mole, someone aligned with the Craing opposition forces. The Craing were tipped off and subsequently were waiting above Earth in high orbit. We believe the Craing detected the ship just prior to our going underground. Their incursion has been limited to a fifty-mile radius above.”
Lieutenant Perkins then continued: “Four Craing light cruisers were deployed—seems they are either killing off local populace, or, in some cases, bringing them on board their ships—most likely to be interrogated. Right now, San Bernardino is center-stage news around the world.”
“What the hell is the military doing while all this is happening?” Jason asked, even more agitated.
“The military was fast to react. Ground forces have been deployed and hundreds of fighters were scrambled from Vandenberg, Edwards, as well as Los Angeles. They were all quickly destroyed with little damage, if any, to the small contingent of Craing fighters.” Jason stopped running and looked at Perkins, momentarily
Until now, I’ve never let her out of my sight. If she were to fall into the hands of the Craing… The implications are staggering. Imagine Adolph Hitler, mid-way through
World War II, being offered advanced weapons’ technology hundreds, if not thousands, of years in advance of the Allied forces. There would have been no stopping him. For some reason, the Alliance has chosen me to lead our forces against the hostile aggression by the Craing. And subsequently we’ve pooled our forces from planets in multiple sectors, even those thousands of light-years from Earth. We are a force of approximately two thousand warships.
I fear my days here are numbered. My location is no longer a secret. It seems we have a mole in our mist, either here on this planet among our ranks, or there on The Lilly. That’s something you’ll need to deal with. Moving forward, I only hope what we have planned will be enough. We’ll find out soon enough. If the Craing make it through our lines, no doubt Earth will be taken. Get off the planet and come to the Altar System. One more thing—the crew is inexperienced. I’m sorry, but we just could not afford to leave our best there, while the Craing are here knocking at our door.
Properly manned, The Lilly would have a crew of about 200. You have a ragtag crew of about 30. Not necessarily all misfits, but we had to pull from where we could: A civilian doctor from Jhardon, a planet here in the Altar System, from Planetary University; ground forces officers; several men released from the brig; even an athletic sports personality. By the time you come on board, they will have undergone HyperLearning, which will help. Both Lieutenant Perkins and Ricket will bring you up to speed on everything else. Good luck, son.
Dad
Admiral Perry Reynolds, United Planetary Alliance
Jason replaced the captain’s clusters as well as the letter back into its envelope.
“Thanks for delivering this to me, Lieutenant Perkins. We obviously have a lot to talk about.” Together, the three of them hustled back down the rocky tunnel. Jason looked back at Ricket and the lieutenant. “Right now I need more information,” Jason said. “Do you have access to any of the TV news feeds from above?”
“Yes, of course, we’ve been monitoring events as they’ve unfolded. It’s apparent that this isn’t a planetary-wide invasion—at least not yet. We believe they are right here, specifically in this part of North America, looking for The Lilly.”
“The Craing followed her here?”
“No, that would not be possible,” Ricket chimed in. “As your father explained, there is a mole, someone aligned with the Craing opposition forces. The Craing were tipped off and subsequently were waiting above Earth in high orbit. We believe the Craing detected the ship just prior to our going underground. Their incursion has been limited to a fifty-mile radius above.”
Lieutenant Perkins then continued: “Four Craing light cruisers were deployed—seems they are either killing off local populace, or, in some cases, bringing them on board their ships—most likely to be interrogated. Right now, San Bernardino is center-stage news around the world.”
“What the hell is the military doing while all this is happening?” Jason asked, even more agitated.
“The military was fast to react. Ground forces have been deployed and hundreds of fighters were scrambled from Vandenberg, Edwards, as well as Los Angeles. They were all quickly destroyed with little damage, if any, to the small contingent of Craing fighters.” Jason stopped running and looked at Perkins, momentarily
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