Bright Horizons

Chapter 18

18 August 2044

Kyle looked around at his room once again. A long history of writing lists never broke him of the habit of making a visual inspection of his room before he left for a trip.

“Everything is in the car, Dad,” Sara said from the doorway.

He turned and smiled at his daughter. “Thanks sweetie, I’ll only be gone for about twelve days this time. Make sure you don’t burn the house down.”

Since the Iltia’cor invasion, Sara had moved home from college and taken up residence in her old room. While Kyle was certainly glad that she wanted to spend more time at home, he was fully aware that he was, in fact, not around near as much as he should be as a father.

“The surrender should be soon, then a few days of treaty negotiations, then I will take some time off. Think about what you want to do when I get back,” he said as he hugged her

“Italy?” She asked. “Or better, Sicily. We could go to Palermo and the ruins at Syracuse.”

“That sounds incredible! What a great trip. I was thinking Disney World, but I guess you aren’t quite at that age anymore,” Kyle said as his driver, Sergeant Kinsey, started up the car outside.

“Disney World! I didn’t think about that. Now I have a tough choice”

Kyle laughed as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “You go ahead and think about it and set it up. I’ll go wherever you want. I have to go now, sweetie.”

“Ok Dad, be safe and come back soon,” she said with the same measured practice she had used since she was old enough to send him off into harm’s way.

Kyle looked back at his house as he stepped into the car. It was about two years from being paid off. He shook his head at the thought.

“Kinsey, I’m about to head to a battle 117 light-years away, onboard a ship that costs close to a trillion dollars to construct, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So why am I focused on when I will have my mortgage burning ceremony?”

“Sounds like you have your priorities in the right place, sir.”

Kyle smiled at that answer. It sounded to him like advice he frequently gave and rarely took.

The ride to Dulles was pleasant for Kyle. James Kinsey was an excellent driver, both attentive to the road and to his passenger.

Kyle pulled out his tablet and scanned the morning’s reports as he chatted with Kinsey. He was happy that everything was going well and that no new problems had popped up overnight.

The majority of sleds were already hauling some supply scooters into position around the Iltia system in preparation for the attack. The planners had decided on four simultaneous points of entry into the system. Three cruisers and five scooters would be brought in at each point and attempt to hold the drop point as the sleds went back to bring in reinforcements.  In all, forty cruisers and two hundred scooters would make up the Earth invasion fleet.

If reports were correct, the Iltia’cor would have around sixty cruisers to hold their system, but eighty of the Earth’s scooters were essentially just giant railguns that had proved devastating to the Iltia’cor in each engagement. Kyle hoped that the Iltia’cor wouldn’t devise a counter to Earth’s big punch. If they did, Kyle was still convinced that the fact that the mosar based weapons of the Iltia’cor were useless against Earth’s ships would be enough to tip the balance of the fight.

“We’re here, sir,” Kinsey said as he pulled the car onto a service ramp. A group of armed guards kept a wary watch on their vehicle as an officer approached.