Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier by D. L. Harrison Page B

Sergei would have five to one odds against him,
with the twenty carriers stationed there.  But then, they’d have sixteen
hundred attack shuttles as well, not to mention Shield missiles, and a few
missile boats.  The upgrades wouldn’t be completely done, but the shields
would be, so they’d be at triple strength, but not yet at six times strength
when the dark energy reactor came online.  They’d only have the old plasma
cannons as well.  Still, whoever was attacking would most likely lose, as
long as they didn’t have any nasty surprises or new technologies.
    Whoever they are, they are either out for revenge, or want
to ensure the Knomen can never rise again.
    Al said, “New data coming in I think you might want to know
about.”
    I shook my head, “What now?”
    Al said, “The Seltans are gathering close to Leira, there
are close to a thousand ships present, and it looks like those numbers are
growing.  Fifty more ships have left Earth space at FTL, and I am
detecting several other small fleets from allies moving toward Leiran space.”
    Holy crap.  I’d figured the Seltan were waiting until
something broke out here before trying to attack Leira again, but I had no idea
how closely they must have been watching to act so quickly.
    “How many treaty ships.”
    Al answered, “Including ours, twelve hundred and nineteen,
so far.”
    I frowned, “Have all treaty worlds sent ships yet?”
    Al said, “Yes.”
    I tilted my head, “Then why the qualifier?”
    Al was silent for a moment, “I estimated there was a
seventy-eight percent chance you would make the number twelve hundred and
twenty-one.”
    Would I?  I did have my own fleet of two after
all.  That’s entirely crazy, I was a scientist.  I wasn’t even in the
damned military anymore, and I’d be crazy to get involved.  Kristi had
been oddly silent on the other side of the room.
    I smiled, “Kristi, want to go pick a fight?”
    Kristi giggled, “Okay.  But we should’ve built our
death star first.”
    I shook my head in bewilderment, “Death star?”
    Kristi laughed, “You don’t remember?  Last night when
we got really drunk on wine.  Something about thousands of plasma turrets,
and eight levels of shielding, a huge ship half the size of the moon powered by
a dark energy reactor.  Full of millions of anti-FTL missiles, Shield missiles, and attack shuttles controlled by
A.I.  You even talked about a city, and farms.  It was a completely
self-sufficient world in and of itself.  I thought you might wind up
conquering the universe, but you passed out in the middle of Empire Strikes
Back instead.”
    I… didn’t remember that at all.  No juggernaut ships
for me, but apparently I hadn’t forgotten the concept, it had even grown. 
I shook my head, hopefully she was just getting me back, for me teasing her
this morning about the hangover.  Surely I didn’t really… I shook my head,
again.
    “Al, go ahead and follow the ships heading to Leira, slow
down and match after we catch up.”
    Al said, “Engaged.”
    Kristi’s eyes widened, “Oh. My .
Goodness.  Did your A.I. just reference and make fun of star trek?”
    Al asked, “Was it not amusing?”
    I laughed, “Yes, a little.”  Just a little shocking as
well…
     
    The hundred ship Earth fleet heading to Knomen would get
there eight hours before the enemy fleet.  Eight hours after that, the
attack would start.  And we and the other fifty Earth ships, would still
have at least a day to get to Leira.  With the updated ships, I could get
there before that happened, hell, I could be there now.  But I wasn’t
going to face a thousand plus Seltan ships with only the Leiran ships there, of
which there was an impressive four hundred of right now.
    The Seltan ships were still showing up, gathering at the
edge of sensor range, and were in excess of that twelve hundred ships we would
have.  With the fifty Earth battle cruisers, we would have a thousand
attack shuttles, along with