Free SODIUM:4 Gravity by Stephen Arseneault

that when the fighting began they would be able to hide away until the aliens had been defeated. Others complained that valuable resources were being wasted.
    As zero hour approached the world civilizations were beginning to get restless. The airwaves were limited to movies and music that were considered uplifting or to those that inspired fight and resistance. Many of the old war movies from the 20th century had once again become popular. Meanwhile, I sat on a Ghost ship with Shepard... trapped on a monotonous mission to watch the attackers as they crept ever closer.
    For a year Earth had been broadcasting continuous requests to the aliens for sympathy or compromise. Offers of sanctuary or negotiation had fallen on deaf ears. Our alien attackers had no interest in our pleas.
    On day 14 to zero Command began to show signs of desperation. We had orders to observe as four more Ghost ships would attempt an attack. This time, they would be using our stealth tactic in an attempt to slide inside the mega-ship's defense and enter into its hull.
    Once inside, the orders were to open fire. It would be considered a Kamikaze run by most, with chances of not coming home being high. But these were soldiers and they were willing to risk their lives in the defense of their loved ones, of their planet, of all that they knew.
    Again I asked to be included in the raid only to be denied. The QE comm embedded in my head was still considered too valuable to lose. I wondered how valuable it would be if there was no home to return too. I kept my idle thoughts to myself.
    The four Ghosts started their mission from 500 million kilometers. It was a distance at which we felt short bursts of a BHD might go undetected. It would take 15 hours for the drifting ships to reach their target. And it would only be effective if that target remained on the correct path.
    The Ghosts would move in a square formation with a 30 kilometer distance between them. The hope was that at least one would slip inside the alien mega-ship. We watched patiently as the counter ticked towards zero. With two hours to go the alien fleet made a slight shift in its course. Shepard ran the calculations which revealed that only one Ghost now had a chance at an encounter.
    I wanted to enable the comm to the four Ghost commanders, but I could not do so without revealing our position. Our QE connection to home was secure and silent to the rest of the universe except for the entangled pairs at the other end at Command. Radio broadcasts were anything but silent.
    With a half hour to go the fleet again made another adjustment moving completely out of the path of the incoming Ghosts. The stealth attack mission was a bust. Shepard was livid as she had done an analysis of the fleet’s movements and had forwarded those results to Command. The Tacticians had done their own analysis and devised the current plan while excluding Shepard's data. After the fleet's last movement Shepard had simulated the assault with her own calculations which showed a correct estimate of their new location.
    At our distance it would be another seven days before any alteration to Command's plans could be put into effect as it would take that long for communications to arrive from Earth. I asked Shepard if there was any other way to contact the Ghosts without being detected. There was none. For seven days the Ghost ships repeated their attempts at crossing into the alien fleet. Each time they missed by wide margins as the alien fleet adjusted course.
    On the eighth day the raiders received their new orders. Shepard's calculations had matched the moves of the fleet. Again the 15 hour counter was reset and the Ghost raid begun. We watched anxiously as the timer approached zero. The assault yielded results.
    As the Ghosts entered the fleet's space one of the battleships suddenly veered off course and dropped its speed. Moments later bright flashes could be seen on its outer hull. The same phenomenon then happened to another