GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 11 ... Mobilisation

"Impressive. Even if I have to say so myself." Sayed said as they stared with fascination out of the flagship's Bridge.

Billions of tons of war ships jockeyed for position.

Cruisers vied with battleships in their numbers as far as the eye could see, dwarfing the smaller frigates and destroyers while hundreds of gnat sized Corvettes patrolled the perimeters. They twisted and turned and slipped between their oversized brethren, sniffing and seeking out anything that could give a hint of danger.

"It took a while," Blondie said, but we got there.

"Damned right. So tell me Juan, how long before weighing anchor and to get our butts out of here?"

"In about a week, Daniel." Fleet Admiral Juan de Leon said as he keyed a switch on the consul before him. "Right. Number One? Give us a taste of your secret weapon."

"Aye-Aye sir." Came the reply from the ship's speakers. "Three...Two...One...we have full systems operational. Power being diverted...Shields up. I repeat. Shields up and holding. Cloaking countdown has commenced."

Power throughout the ship suddenly dipped and dimmed.

"What the hell?" The President cried as he stared out at the sight before him. Even Blondie took a few moments to get over the shock as ship after ship suddenly seemed to vanish before their eyes. Where moments before Warship upon Warship seemed to crowd upon each other, now there were none except for the Corvettes that still seemed to dance to a tune of their own.

"I thought you would like a demonstration of our secret weapon," the admiral grinned at his two stupefied visitors. Foul smelling smoke from his huge Beechen pipe wafted through the air.

"How?" Sayed cried again.

"The devil made me do it," the admiral said with a glint in his eyes.

"Loki?" Blondie asked as he stared in wonder. "Hang on a minute. Something's happening."

"Automated power diversion in three...two...one. Power divert cancelled. All systems operational. I repeat," the voice from the speakers said. "Shields down. Cloaking terminated.

"Cloaking shields? Loki?" Sayed gaped in wonder as the warships suddenly reappeared and the ships lighting returned.

"Loki." Affirmed the Admiral. "Only lasts for thirty-two seconds, but it's a safe bet that when the time comes, quite few lives will be saved because of that invention."

"Why does it only last for a few seconds?" asked Blondie.

"Electricity. Simple as that. Power. It uses a prodigious amount of the stuff and can only be used in emergencies. It runs the backup batteries dry in seconds. I'm told that by the time we return, the boffins who know more about this stuff than we do, will have made some impressive advancements in this direction and we will have to replace obsolete cloaking equipment on every ship."

"So why then did those ..." Blondie pointed at a fast moving gnat sized ship that had come into the view screen and as suddenly disappeared around the curved hull of a huge warship. "I'm trying to... Corvette I think?" He glanced at the Admiral for confirmation who acquiesced. "Why were they not cloaked?"

"A matter of space, Blondie." The admiral puffed on his foul smelling pipe. "The Corvette displaces five hundred and fifty tons and is too small to have a cloaking device. The thing displaces close to a hundred tons of dead weight. The other option was to make the Corvette larger but then other, more practical problems arose so we decided against it. They are our sniffer dogs. Fast on the rebound and deadly as a viper. Brimming with fire power and have absolutely no space in them to fit a fly."