The Scalian Legacy
Chapter Twenty Four

Commander Rivas didn’t supply Jack much of a reason as to why he was being led back to the conference room to meet with Captain Malarde and Admiral Alterman again. This Rivas isn’t very talkative. Jack thought to himself as he was led down the corridor.

In the corridor along the way, Jack passed by some other rhino-hided, pseudo-humans who reacted similarly to those the day before. They looked at each other with obvious astonishment, and Jack could foresee the encounter being a source of conversation for them the rest of the day. However, unlike the other day, this did not stir feelings of loneliness and despair, but instead a certain degree of amusement. Jack marveled at how his state of mind could influence his attitude towards the actions of others.

As Jack neared the conference room, Jack couldn’t help but wonder why they wanted to talk to him now. The captain had already told him that they believed him. So, maybe they had news about Robbie and Marcelo? He could only hope.

Once they arrived, Rivas placed his palm next to the door, announced himself and the door opened.

As they entered, the admiral stood. He asked Jack to take a seat. Jack noticed they all looked a little tired. It wasn’t easy to tell with that thick hide on their face, but the eyes did seem droopy, and their overall posture seemed to be dragging.

“Mr. Felder,” the admiral began hesitantly, “it seems that whenever we speak, we need to share some rather shocking news with you.”

“I don’t think you can top our last encounter.” Jack smiled. “Plus, as I told the captain earlier,” he nodded at her. “I know about the Scalians, Pendorans and Drumans. I also know the threat we are under. Horace caught me up on recent history. The captain said that you all believed my story, right?” Jack asked.

“Yes, she let us know and we do believe you. However, what we have to share with you goes well beyond this.” The admiral paused and leaned forward as if to add gravity to what he was about to say. “There’s no subtle way to introduce this. We need to ask for your help on what may be the most important military offensive in the history of mankind.”

Jack stared at the admiral and then shifted his disbelief to the captain and Rivas for a few moments. He was wondering if these humans were playing a joke on him, albeit this seemed like an odd time for such a joke. But if not a joke, then what the hell were these weird alien humans talking about now? They needed his help? What could he possibly help them with? “Come again?” Jack swallowed uncertainly. “You’re joking, right?”

“I wish we were.” The admiral forced a smile through his obvious fatigue. “Unfortunately, we are not.”

“Okay, well, I’m listening.” Jack couldn’t imagine what they needed from him.

“First, we need to catch you up on what we know…”

The admiral turned to the captain who went on to show Jack the holographic images from Helos 4, Tatos 3 and Excelia 4 and the facts uncovered about the civilizations that used to populate those planets. The captain went on to explain that the coalition had voted to resume the conflict with the Scalians. Their first order of business was to stop a fairly defenseless Scalian freighter, in order to break into its Scalian computer system and gather information on Project Redemption. This had been successful, but the ship was scheduled to report back to Scalian central command in fewer than twenty hours— and of course, it couldn’t report back, since it had been commandeered. Once the twenty hours were up, their brief window to stop the weapon destined to destroy life on old Earth would have past.

“And you don’t have the time to simply overrun them because of that Sphere thing?” Jack said.

“Exactly.” The admiral started. “Given enough time, yes, we could simply overrun them, albeit at a significant cost. However, based on the information we found out about Project Redemption from our computer system break-in, the Redeemer—as the Scalians have decided to call this planetary genocide weapon—is pretty much ready to go. They are preparing to launch it in a couple of days—and worse, they can launch it in about five minutes, if necessary. So, if we attempt a typical attack on them, they will simply launch it early. It will take days for us to break through the Scalian Sphere. We only have about five minutes.”

The admiral paused to give this time to sink in, but Jack didn’t need much time. “I still don’t see how I can help.”

“We have developed a desperate plan that gives us a chance—and you are the key part of this plan.” Jack nodded to indicate the admiral should continue. “The only way for us to succeed is for someone to shut down a portion of the Scalian Sphere from inside…and the only one that we think can do it is you.”

Jack didn’t know what his face must have looked like, but it was obvious from the admiral’s expression his confusion came through clearly. How could it be that he was the only one that could do this? He was an untrained scientist, not a spy or Navy Seal….

“Let us run through the plan...”

The admiral once again turned it over to the captain and she explained that the Scalian’s Project Redemption included uploading as much information about the technologies of the galaxy as possible into the Redeemer so that they could gain advantages in the next time line. Thus, if they could entice the Scalians with technology the Scalians would like to get their hands on, then perhaps they could get someone past the Scalian’s outer defense. Once within the Scalian Sphere, the intruder would need to wreak havoc on whatever ship or space fort they were sent to in order to gain access to a computer terminal and disable the one section of the Sphere, where the entire coalition fleet would be waiting. The danger was that most Scalian ships and space forts were designed to target any Pendoran, Druman or human detected on board, disabling or killing them immediately. Many had perished invading Scalian ships in the past. However, Jack was not known to be Pendoran, Druman, or human. Thus the automated system should not target him, and should give him time to find a terminal.

“You did tell me this morning that you were a little bored, right?” Malarde added with a smile.

“Not exactly what I was thinking about,” Jack replied still in shock.

“We will succeed Jack, and it will be because of you,” Malarde continued. “Humanity will owe you its greatest debt.”

Jack nodded. While he now understood why these pseudo-humans felt they needed him, he had no idea how he was supposed to pull off saving the galaxy. Still, he would reserve judgment until he heard the details.

The admiral then asked Jack to work with Rivas to review the plan in detail, learn all he could about the few possible destinations he might be taken to, and how to break into the Scalian computer system.

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