Coeus?

“

You invent it, therefore you use it.

”

-Unknown

***Galactic Centre, Aether***

***Gideon***

“Two thousand metres long, twenty antimatter cores, a hundred laser cannons and layered shielding, latest generation warp drives and self-repair functions due to organic components!” I drop the printed file onto my office table and throw up my hands. “Yes! Why not! Give the barbarians a nuke and watch them use it! The Zeen are mad!”

“It's not that bad. Even with the new drive, they are still months away from getting anywhere near Sol.” Isciat, our fleet commander, points out. He, Gabriel, Paul, Cyla, and I immediately went back to Aether after getting the information about the new ships from Zeil.

“That doesn't change the fact that those new ships are trouble! We thought that we have to face the first wave in a few years at the earliest. Now we have only months left! Are you sure that we shouldn't blow up a Zeen world? Preferably one with a lot of civilians? Just to ensure that the message got across!” I glance down at the file in front of me.

“No!” All of the people who are present reply at once.

I try to negotiate, reigning in my instinct. “A moon? One of their space stations!?”

Paul shakes his head. “Ayo was right when he judged that that's the last thing we want to do. Try to concentrate on a solution to our problem. Even with our shipyards running at full capacity since our departure, we have only about four hundred real warships back at Sol. With the fleet which is accompanying Aether we get up to five hundred ships. Then we can call upon fifty weapon platforms.” He tilts his head. “I want to think that our ships are able to go one on one against theirs, but that's probably too much to hope. Those things are huge. Their new ships are more comparable to our weapon platforms than our ships.”

I turn to face Paul who is leaning against a wall. “Then how many platforms can we rig together if all our shipyards switch to warship production?”

He winces. “I am sorry. A hundred, maybe two hundred platforms if we convert some of the civil freighters. It's my fault. If we hadn't invested so much in building more shipyards, we could have had a fleet that is able to beat them.”

Isciat shakes his head. “It's not your fault. You may be in charge of the building projects, but it was fleet command and the elders who told you what to build. We all thought that there is more than enough time and that ensuring a viable industrial base is more important.”

He turns to us. “We've already found out that our disruptor technology has a nasty interaction with their warp drive. Can't we send out our ships to intercept them one by one? They could knock them out of warp and engage with superior numbers.”

I roll my eyes and shake my head. “As much as I like the idea, the Drazi aren't complete morons.” Tapping onto the documents I continue. “Those ships have enough power to dig their way through void space and skip solar systems. The Drazi won't stop at every system like they had to until now. I even suspect that they will split up to rendezvous somewhere close to Sol. It's natural to move your forces in single units until they are at the place of deployment. The best protection for a fleet of ships is the vastness of space.”

Cyla nods. “They will most likely try to avoid the established warp routes to make full use of their new drives. Maybe we'll manage to intercept some of their ships, but if they split up to meet at Sol... most of their ships will get through. Our sensor platforms cover the stars around our home, but not the emptiness between them. Maybe we can catch a few of them when they are refuelling, but if Ayo's data about the new drives is true, then they can refuel outside of our reconnaissance network and make their way to Sol without having to stop. The earliest we will see from them is when they are already approaching Sol.”

I scratch my earlobe and drop my hand to my armrest. “We should get Aether back to Sol in any case. And maybe make plans to relocate our society to another Solar system.”

Gabriel's eyes widen. “And what about Earth?”

I shrug my shoulders. What about it? Earth can't move. “Sometimes you have to leave the old stuff behind when you have to run fast.”

“There are people on Earth! A lot of them!” Cyla calls out. “Not to speak about the people who would have to stay behind on the colonies!”

“Aren't all immobile colonies required to have enough ships to evacuate their citizens?” I ask a little astounded. I am sure that I heard something about that during my time at school.

Cyla's expression turns belittling and she looks down on me from her position at the corner of my office table. “You don't seriously think that we could pull off such an evacuation within a few months? There would be people who simply don't want to give up their homes. And even if all those evacuation ships are actually space-worthy, which I don't believe, they were never intended for a flight to another solar system. They aren't much more than shuttles which can lift people out of a planet's gravity well to have them transported by bigger ships.”

She spreads her hands. “The law only states that a colony has to be able to evacuate its citizens. It doesn't say that they have to survive in those ships for an extended amount of time. Mars alone has a few million people. There is no way to split them up to the mobile colonies.”

I purse my lips in thought. Cyla seems quite knowledgeable in that regard. But then again she is from Mars. If she says that those evacuation ships aren't much more than shuttles then I have to believe her.

Cyla continues. “I doubt that anyone ever thought about evacuating all colonies at once. It would have required more ships than we ever had. That's simply not feasible. I don't doubt that we could evacuate enough people to start anew, but it would require to leave a lot of souls to their doom.”

“I guess then we have to find another solution.” There may be something which we haven't thought about, yet. Aw, fuck it! I may as well spent a few months inside my VR to think of a solution. I activate my ability and retreat into my mind, getting to work.

...

I return from my self imposed exile to see Paul nod and say, “We still have a few months, and Aether will return to Sol soon. It's not like we immediately have to come up with an answer.”

I ignore him and reach for Cyla's hand, pulling her closer. Then I brush her hand against my cheek and sigh. “It's so good to see you again, Dear. You have no idea how I longed for you.”

Cyla raises an inquisitive eyebrow. “Did you just use your VR?”

“Yes.” I stroke her hand. “Paul, how many teleportation nodes can you build if we size them down to a few anti-matter cores? They don't have to transport that much volume. A hundred cubic metres and a reach of three hundred light-years are more than enough. I've done the calculations already. The explosions should be big enough to cover a decent amount of space.”

“What!? How long did you spend in isolation?” Cyla grabs my collar and shakes me.

Paul blinks. “Why? A hundred? I think we would need at least as many cores as we require for a weapon platform. The cores are the limiting problem, so for every node, we would have to give up a platform.”

It's cute that Cyla is concerned about my well being, but having my world threatened by a bunch of rodents is something I can't tolerate. “Don't worry, Cyla. I've invested only a few weeks to get the math done. If Paul's factories start right away we should have a decent amount of mines to solve the issue.”

Isciat raises his voice. “Teleportation nodes as mines? How would that work?”

I smile and face my audience. “Well, once we have a smaller version of the teleportation nodes we can use the big ones to teleport the small ones to deploy them where we want. We could even equip them with stealth tech to stop anyone from spotting them as soon as we teleport a node close to the enemy fleet.”

Isciat's expression turns troubled. “But that would require a lot of accuracy. Teleportation without a relay point is really troublesome. And what do we get from teleporting a node close to the enemy?”

I raise a finger. “Ah! That's why I had to do a little Math and thinking. Sol is covered with our quantum computers and the mainframe is there to assist us. We can use the network to triangulate the correct position. Once the miniature teleportation node is deployed it will teleport a little mass from Calvera directly to it.”

“Calvera?” Gabriel asks.

“Calvera is just about three hundred light-years away and the closest known neutron star.” I take a breath. “The gravity of the teleported amount of mass won't be enough to keep the matter compressed to neutrons. It will rapidly expand and blast apart in an explosion of pure radiation, erasing everything that's too close. It's like a miniature supernova! Much better than a puny nuke.”

Clearing my throat I close my eyes and nod slowly. “We will be able to control the size of the exterminated volume of space by limiting the amount of teleported neutronium mass. Though I would recommend making a few tests before we deploy that weapon. We don't want to radiate our home system with lethal dosages of radiation, do we?”

Then I open my eyes again. “Why are you guys looking at me like I am mad? You all look at me like I just came up with a doomsday device. I just invented our salvation! Praise me!”

All the people around me wear strange expressions and even Cyla has a really forced smile on her face. The corner of her right eye is twitching like mad.

“Even you don't think it's a good idea?” I sadly drop my head.

And I thought my solution is the perfect answer to the rodent infection. If you have to deal with vermin, you have to find an appropriate poison.

.