Planet Wrecker

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The SU Fifth Fleet—two battleships and a missile-ship—accelerated. Cassius watched it on his images. The Julius Caesar and the Genghis Khan continued to slow down. Between them, the asteroids and debris zooming at Earth acted as a screen.

Cassius hailed Vice-Admiral Mandela and soon spoke to him screen-to-screen.

“Where do you go in such a hurry?” asked Cassius.

“I have my orders, Grand Admiral,” Mandela said, as he stood before his chair. The preman seemed nervous. “It has been a pleasure fighting under your inspired leadership. I hope we can fight together again and destroy the cyborg menace.”

“Help us stop these objects,” Cassius said.

“I’m afraid we need more military stores to do that.”

“Ah,” said Cassius, “I see. If you decelerate, we shall re-supply you.”

“That’s a generous offer, Grand Admiral. But I cannot. I’ve been given my orders straight from Supreme Commander Hawthorne of Social Unity. I dare not disobey him.”

Cassius adjusted the transmission. Everything was turning against him at once. Did the universe mean to test his greatness to the limit? Somewhere, he needed events to move in his favor. Cassius scowled. A superior man forced events to move in his favor. The preman Vice-Admiral seemed badly frightened about something. It was time to play on his worst fears.

“What if I said that I shall fire on your ships unless you decelerate?” said Cassius.

Mandela glanced about as if for moral support. There was whispering around him, maybe directed at him. Mandela nodded and took a tentative step forward. “Speaking theoretically, sir, it would mean our alliance was at an end.”

“Ah,” said Cassius, “speaking theoretically. Go then, preman. I grant you leave.” The ultra-lasers were still under repairs. He would never forget this preman’s treachery, however. After he had fought so hard for them, they acted like ingrates and ran away.

Hours passed. In time, the three SU warships accelerated far away from the asteroids.

From Earth, the first salvo of merculite missiles ignited off the blast-pans and headed for the stratosphere, rising to do battle with the mass of potential kinetic death to every living organism on the planet.

Cassius watched the lone planet, and he wished in that moment he possessed the ancient premen superstition of a belief in God. He would have liked to ask someone to help him for a change. But if God was real, He kept silent. God had never spoken to the Grand Admiral of the Highborn. Therefore, because he was alone, Cassius desperately hoped the dice of fate rolled in his favor. He needed the Earth intact, and then he needed to outmaneuver his Highborn enemies.