Star Rider and the Golden Threads by Heidi Skarie (best ereader for pdf and epub .TXT) 📗

any chance ofsaving Jaipar?” Her face and stance were tense and he wished hecould reassure her, but the odds didn’t look good.

“I’ll do my best to uniteBorko,” Erling said.

“Where will you be?” sheasked, gazing at him with love in her eyes.

“Michio and I will command thetroops from the lead starship. I’d better go. We haven’t muchtime.” Erling drew her close. “If we lose, I’ll come to you atcommand center. I love you.”

“I love you too. Come back tome.”

“I’ll try, God willing.” Hereleased her. He had a battle to fight and he was the planet’schief commander.

29

Attack on Jaipar

Erling stood with Michio andGeneral Dursky in a circular room, waiting for the rulers of planetBorko and their top military leaders to arrive for theholoconference. Erling had called the meeting to inspire and organizethe world leaders to fight for the planet’s defense.

A full-size holographicprojection of Koriann appeared beside Erling.

“Hi Erling.” She was smiling,but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “It looks like I’m thefirst to arrive.”

Erling found it unsettling togaze at the lifelike, three-dimensional image of her, even though heknew the technology behind it. “I’m glad you made it safely tothe Control Center,” Erling said, grateful she’d agreed to leavethe City of Silver Light.

More world leaders’ holographicimages began appearing: President Tengal of Mithra, whose country wasalready at war with Haklute; King Arteka and Queen Haleh Farha ofEncore; and Emperor Valheart of the Starlean race, a small man withround gold eyes and green skin. Next arrived Beta-org the enormousleader of the Borgone lizard race who stood on her two back legs,balanced upright by her large tail. She wore a translator fastened ather yellow throat so she could speak the universal language.

The rest of the rulers arrived inrapid succession and soon one-hundred-sixty world leaders wereassembled. Only fifteen hadn’t come. Some were neutral countriesthat didn’t believe in war while others had allied themselves withKing Zanton of Haklute.

Pleased to see that the leaderswho hadn’t decided whether to align themselves with Jaipar orHaklute had shown up, Erling began his speech. “I’ve called thismeeting because the Raptor space fleet has nearly reached planetBorko. We’ve prepared for this attack for months. Most of you withmilitary air fleets have pledged to join in the defense of ourplanet. For that, we thank you. For those of you who are stillundecided, now is the time to put our differences aside and form aunited front to save the planet. Unless we join together and fight asone united force, Samrat Condor will take control of Borko andenslave our planet as he has done with so many others. He will stealour valuable resources, force our sons and daughters into hismilitary and enslave the rest of the population. United, we candefeat him. Separated, we will fall as Alandra did. It’s time tofight!”

The world leaders clapped andcheered in agreement.

When they quieted, Erling said,“King Zanton of Haklute has betrayed us. He joined forces withSamrat Condor, convinced his allies to align themselves with him andattack Mithra and Jaipar. King Zanton divided our planet at a timewhen it’s critical for us to be strong and united. Don’t listento King Zanton’s promise of gaining favor with Samrat Condor byfighting for the Raptor Empire. Samrat Condor has shown time and timeagain that he won’t honor his promises. He cares only for power andcontrol, and puts no value on sentient life.

“There’s no time fordeliberation. It’s time to assemble your space fleets and join thebattle.” More cheering erupted. Once it quieted, Erling continued,“At this very moment the Jaiparian, Mithrian and Encore spacefleets battle Haklute forces. We must take action now, before theRaptor fleet arrives and joins the Haklute. Jaipar and her alliesalone stand between Samrat Condor and this planet’s freedom. Ourvictory will thwart the takeover of the planet. Together we can stopSamrat Condor before he gets ahold of the planet. This is our worldand we must fightto save it!”

The world leaders applauded evenlouder. When silence was restored, Erling asked each country fortheir commitment. Most of the undecided countries agreed to joinJaipar in defense of the planet. Erling was gratified that so many ofthe allies had joined forces, pledging to support and join in thedefense of Borko. Despite their differences in race, religion,culture and beliefs, most countries feared Samrat Condor and wantedto stay free.

After the few, who had not joinedthe alliance, had left the holoconference Erling presented his planof defense, drawing on the strengths of each nation. Once everythingwas in place, Erling returned to Central Command to meet with thegenerals and get an update on the aerial battle with Haklute.

On the Coalition starship,Toemeka tested the computer virus her team had developed on asimulated Haklute computer system, then read over the test results.

“How did the test go?” Jakeasked, startling her. He placed his hand on the back of her computerchair and leaned over her shoulder. The familiar masculine scent ofhis cologne brought back a flood of memories.

She pushed them aside. “Ididn’t hear you come in.”

“I just got back from a meetingwith General Quintary. Does the virus work?” he asked again,impatiently. He had reason for concern—the eclipse of Jaipar’ssecond moon, Belga, was tonight.

She swiveled in her chair to lookat him. “Yes, it works. I’d like to run more tests, but theresults so far show the virus will worm its way into Raptor starshipcomputers, corrupting their jump drives, then move on to corruptother major systems, such as weapons, shields and propulsion.”

“Great. We’re going to do it,Toemeka!” He shook his fist. “We’re going to save Borko!” Headdressed everyone in the computer room. “Can I have everyone’sattention?”

The other ten team members turnedaway from their computers to face Jake.

“Our starship has nearlyreached Belga,” Jake said. “Our team is assigned to land sixtwo-man fighters on the dark side of the moon. When Samrat Condor’sships fly over, we’ll send out a fake communication that willappear to be from King Zanton. When they open the communication, thevirus will corrupt their jump drive and send them into anothergalaxy.

Toemeka just confirmed that testresults show the virus works. The worm will also corrupt theircomputers, so they can’t make further jumps and return