THE FINAL OPTION

THE FINAL OPTION…………..
The war against the Kachalot has been going on now for 8 years,,
we’re losing ships and outposts quickly now…The Kachalot have
seized control of or destroyed all of Earths colonized worlds beyond
the belt of Orion,, it wouldn’t be long now…
Their vast armadas have gained the upper hand,, their technologies
have seemed to grow from nothing and now they stand ready to
devour and destroy everything humankind has achieved…

The supply ship Greenling is making its supply run to satellite
outpost UR#32 near Uranus,, its almost halfway between Jupiter
and Saturn,, it should take about 5 days to reach the outpost…
Then what,, who knows…
The Greenling is an old converted stellar cruise liner,, converted
over to military use now…not much in the way of armament or
weapons,, just enough to keep pirates and rouge Kachalot fighters
away…it doesn’t have the Lextron drive that the big military
battlewagons have,, it only has solar sails and Ion drive…
Its just a supply ship about 1/4 mile long,, that’s all,, not much
compared to the newest H.Allen battle carriers,, that are 2 miles
long and have all the newest technologies Earth could put on them
and carry 1800 MK47t Ion drive fighters,, the fastest things Earth
could design for battle in the blackness of space…

Over the radio,, the Greenling can hear what’s happening on the
military airways,, not the top secret ones of course,, just ship to
Earth and ship to ship,, dark days,, victories for the Kachalot and
battles lost for us…

Sssssshs….Captain I think I have something over the radio…
Lets heard it,, put it on the speakers…
Sssssshs…This is Captain Hallock,, Earth command can you
hear us….sssssshs Mars station…….
Can you boost the signal?...
I’ll try sir…
Sssssshs…..have engaged the Kachalot near Saiph….12 degrees
starboard….ing all rail guns on line… 4 degrees down…
Fire…. Can you……launch tyolon missiles…..sssssshs…..
I’ve lost em sir…
Keep trying,, Hopwood how far away are they?...
Unknown sir,, I can’t get a fix,, to far out…
Damn,, I wish…
I’ve got something sir…
Sssssshs…..ost the Starranger… Earth can you hear me…
Ensign Zedong boost the signal we….warn earth… up 14 degress...
Fire…. ooks like the whole…..fleet…..fire….
out of tyolon……ir…..bring us closer….fire…..
imperial destroye…..emperors shi……….ssssshsss…
Damn…
Anything?...
No sir….just static now…
Keep listening anyway…
Yes sir…
Who’s this Captain Hallock,, what ship?...
I have him sir,, he’s the captain of the Stardevil,,
fleet commander of 3 H.Allen battle wags and their support
Cruisers….it's the newest ships we have sir…
Yeah,, I know that,, Lidder…I know that…
If they can’t stop em what can?...
Shut up Lidder…
Hodge meet me in my cabin in ten minutes…
Yes sir…

Captain Fenris is sitting at his desk,, looking over the holographic
star charts…his cabin is twice the size of everyone elses’ but still
it’s not very big,, only 18 x 18 or so...
On the bed half sleeping is Garrulous,, part Sheppard and
part Wolf… Captain Fenris always thought it was a funny name,,
kind of like some kind of roman gladiator or something,,
but Garrulous was really just a push over and wouldn’t hurt
anybody… The room is cluttered with books and left over halocharts
from previous supply missions,, there’s a round Port window that
gives just a small view into the blackness…
Not much to see really,, but its there if he wanted to dream about
Earth and going back home…

(knock, knock)…
Come in…
You wanted to see me sir…
Sit down Hodge,, and cut out that sir crap,, we’ve known each
other too long…
Yes sir….sorry…
What do you think John?...
Looks like that’s it to me…
Yeah me too,, wouldn’t take em long to get to Earth,,
and the remaining fleet is over somewhere near the Draco cluster,,
checking out reports of destruction of the mining colonies there…
bad intel… fuckin brass hats…don’t know nothing... never have…
Yes sir…
What’s the rest of the crew think?,, what are they saying?…
Time to get out of here and make a run for it,, find some other
planet and make a new start…
What? With just the 40 of us?...
Yes sir…
That’s nuts,, it could take years to reach somewhere safe,,
this bucket is a snail on wheels,, we can’t out run the Kachalot,,
and I doubt we have enough supplies…
We could break into the military supplies and use that…
Yeah,, I just checked,, it's maybe enough for 8 months,, just a
bunch of space ‘D’s,, a lot of spare parts and 14 containers of
Atomic detonators... not going to get us very far with that...
What about surrender?...
You know better than that,, they don’t take prisoners…
Yeah,, I know…just thinking out loud…

Sssssshs…Captain I’ve got something over the radio...
(click)…yeah,, what is it?...
Ssssshs…I think it’s an ultimatum from the Kachalot to Earth,, sir…
(click)..OK,, we’ll be right there…
Put in on Hopwood,, lets hear it…
Yes sir…
Sssssshs… uman,, surternfer og wil destrou ou…
2 cirgles respond onlt….2 cirgles…ssssshs
That’s it sir…
Not very good at English are they?...
(no laughter,, just worried faces)
Clausewitz how long before they can reach Earth?...
Best guess sir is about 14 days…
How long before the main fleet can get back from Draco?...
About 3 weeks sir…
Damn…
Sir…their going to slaughter everyone,, we have to get out of here…
Shut up Lidder,, keep your mouth shut,, or I’ll shoot you myself…
How long before they reach us?...
About 8 -9 days sir…
What now?…
I don’t know,, I’ll think of something…

Captain Fenris has made his decision,, he’ll stand there and
delay the Kachalot fleet as much as he can…no where to run
anyway…all the escape pods where jettisoned by the rings
of Saturn,, he hoped the Kachalot will think they were space
mines and slow down a little…Captain Fenris has positioned the
Greenling behind Callisto,, maybe the Kachalot sensors wouldn’t
pick them up easily… nothing to do now but wait…this is it…
the last stand of the Greenling…hopefully it will buy just a little
time for Earth and its defenses,, not much hope tho…

(click)… Hodge are you there?...
Yes sir…
(click)…Get down to my cabin right away…
Yes sir…
(knock, knock)
Come in,, damn it…
Yes sir…
John,, I have an idea…
Yes…
Have the engineers rig explosives to the atomic detonators...
And give me the controls...
You’re going to explode the detonators?...
Yeah,, that’s right…
They wouldn’t make much of an explosion,, you need
the hydrogen missiles for that…
Yeah I know,, I have something else in mind,,
could be quite a bang…
Yes sir…

Days of waiting are almost over now,, the Kachalot have gotten
thru the fake mines around Saturn,, it slowed them a bit,,
not much tho… Captain Fenris sits in his cabin,, giving Garrulous,,
as many treats as he wants… the best ‘person’ Captain Fenris
knows…The detonator control is nearby,, all he has to do is flip the
switch and a second later his ship and everyone will be vaporized
in a blinding flash…

Ssssshs…Captain we’ve got Kachalot fighters now…
(click) OK…time for the big show…
Maneuvering jets only…keep us as close to Callisto as you can…
Yes sir…
We could surrender….we have got to get out of here...
Shut up Lidder…
We have got to get out of…
(bang)
Get that piece of shit out of here… I never liked him anyway…
It’s too late to run…
Kachalot battle cruisers now sir…
Ok…wait… get ready to deploy solar sails and fire the Ion
engines at full thrust…
Yes sir…
Imperial destroyers now sir…
Bring us around to the Jupiter side of Callisto…
Easy,, easy…
They’ve spotted us sir… Kachalot fighters approaching…
Deploy the solar sails aft…
Aft sir?…
Do it…
Yes sir…
Fire the Ion engines,, full thrust…

The solar sails burst immediately into a blinding flash as the
Ion engines ignited,, hopefully blinding the Kachalot sensors,,
just for a few moments…It was all Captain Fenris needed
he hoped…the Ion engines quickly reached top speed and the
Greenling was fast approaching the giant gas planet of Jupiter...
The imperial fleet made every attempt to lock on and destroy
the small freighter… Jupiter’s massive gravity now took hold
of the Greenling and there would be no turning back,, no stopping
them now…wait,, wait,, Captain Fenris kept thinking,, wait until
the last possible second before flipping the switch for
the atomic detonators…

An explosion not seen since the beginning of the solar system
took place then…Jupiter with its hydrogen atmosphere erupted
into a mini Sun… the imperial Kachalot fleet was instantly
vaporized…. The rings of Saturn were blown apart by the shock
wave of the explosion…Mars was knocked into a new orbit around
the Sun…Moon stations #6, #12 and #3 were destroyed by debris
from the explosion and the Moon itself was almost cracked in two…
Earth received massive damage from the concussion and the
blast created solar wind… 2.5 billion died… The sky was blackened
for 14 months….but the human race survived…it would not have,,
had the Kachalot fleet arrived…

The final option that Captian Fenris and his crew performed
was indeed a final last option,, an option that saved the human
race from total destruction…

Mankind rebuilt and once again went out into the stars to explore
and find out what is out there…. A small glowing
Sun now rises where Jupiter used to be… it’s called the
Greenling Sun in honor of that final option,,
so many centuries ago….....................


To someone way out there in the cold frozen icefields of the Atlantic…Hey!, you were promoted to Captain and you saved all of humanity…too bad you got your butt vaporized… but that’s a small price to pay for having school buildings named after you…..ain’t it??
Oh yeah,, just so you know,, Garrulous survived and was found by the Ewoks on the moon of Endor,, and nursed back to health,, how he got there,, I don’t know,, maybe the explosion created a wormhole or something…..strange…..