Searcher a-5

by Saxon Andrew

  “That sounds like an interesting missile. Will it work on the transports?”

  “We won’t need one on them. We will use a full size penetrator on those ships that will be big enough to hold the energy ball device and the package with a thousand iron tree balls in it. The energy ball device is too big to use on their small ships; that’s why we’re developing this technique. On the transports we’ll have the energy ball inside the sharpened penetrator along with the balls encased in a sphere made from the structure of the Captors home. It will make it through the blast and when its sensors show a temperature where the iron balls won’t melt they will be blasted out of the case. They should bounce around inside those thick hulls of the transport for quite a while.”

  “Sprig, are the Searcher Class Vessels large enough to fire those?”

  “Yes and no, Matt; these devices can be teleported to the site where they will be fired. Each Searcher will have a battery of more than a thousand of these tuned in to their systems. The system will bring them to the firing point. This is going to be a difficult task trying to hit moving targets but hopefully there will be a learning curve where they will improve. They are equipped with optical sensors tuned to the green color of their ships and will follow the ship as long as it is illuminated. That’s why it is best if they are coming is system toward us so the sun will be shining on them.”

  “What’s the no part?”

  “We need ships big enough to take on the mother ships and the transports in huge numbers.”

  “Can the Defender Class ships handle that?”

  “Not really. They’re just not maneuverable enough in a combat environment. We’re going to bring some ships out of storage.”

  “What kind of ships, Sprig?”

  “I’ll show you.” Sprig raised his teleport device and suddenly Matt and Melanie were on a ship looking out at thousands of huge white ships.”

  Matt and Melanie were stunned, “What are these?”

  “These ships were originally used against my race in our conflict and then against the Captors. Their outer skins are like the Kosiev and can hold millions of the penetrators. They have teleportation ability and can stand toe to toe with the invaders. They’re only a mile long but they are deadly.”

  “Can we train the crews in time?”

  “No, we can’t. Matt we will not have the number of weapons we need in time to hold the invaders off. We watched the recording of their last invasion and we determined that the Captors actually time lapsed the recording. Evidently, the entry point into our universe will only allow ships through it in limited numbers. We have determined that in two months the invasion will start with single ships and then as the entry point is used it will allow multiple ships through. It will take us at least eight months to get the number of weapons needed to take them head on. We’re going to have to let them in before we try to close the door in their face. We suspect more than a hundred thousand or more of the mother ships will be in our universe when we are ready to start hitting them.”

  “So what do we do in the mean time?”

  “Well, we’re certainly going to be moving some planets around as the invaders uncover them. We will start hitting them once they come inside the screen of a hidden planet. We are disguising some of them to look like they’re inhabited so they will land their ships. Our warriors will be waiting for them on the surface and kill their ships on the ground and as many of their troops as possible. When reinforcements arrive the warriors and ships will teleport out.”

  “Aren’t you afraid of showing them our teleportation ability?”

  “Let them see it. Trust me; knowing it exists and coming up with the knowledge on how to develop it are two different things entirely. My mate and I nearly died from the overload. We just have to make sure they do not capture one of our ships.”

  “Sprig, if they come close we’ll just teleport it away and they will be left behind,”

  “Sprig raised his branches laughing and thought, “There is that.”

  “Are we going to have enough time to build these weapons?”

  “Matt, there are more than twenty million planets in the Realm or under its care. Every one of them is building them at this moment. The crews from the Defender Class ships are now training on the Megaships. We will be ready in eight months. Until we are, we are going to be playing a shell game with the invaders. They will be looking for a pea but we will have a rock ready for them. We are going to start killing them and that first ship is going to be our practice target. After them, we are going to make them pay a price for the atrocities they have committed.”

  Matt felt something inside actually longing to make them pay. He heard Melanie’s thought, “We owe them for Angel.”

  Matt looked at her puzzled, “We?”

  “They hurt you terribly. That’s reason enough for me.”

  Matt felt a warm feeling for his friend, “Thank you for understanding; I so want to hurt them.”

  “So do I,” thought Fly Girl.

  “Not as much as me,” thought Al.

  “Oh yes I do.”

  “No way; you know I want to hurt them more.”

  “You retarded dish washer, you’re not even close to how I want to hurt them.”

  Sprig and Twig laughed and were amazed at Stem’s two creations.

  “So am I, Father,” Stem thought.

  The huge green ship arrived back at the system where they had lost their three children and began exploring it in fine detail. The Sensor Male watched his sensors and said, “The children’s ship wasn’t damaged when they disappeared; I’m not certain that we will find anything in this system. That planet certainly wasn’t one of the advanced life form.”

  “I suspect as much, but here is a good place to start looking elsewhere. Let the ships look through this system; I want you to look through your data and find a place where there should be a planet that has intelligent life but doesn’t register on our scans.”

  “I will begin looking, First Fang.” The Sensor Male looked at the last harvest and narrowed his search down to the Galaxy there were in. He found a planet that had good possibilities and then looked at its system. There it was glowing with intelligent life, so that wasn’t a prospect. He moved his search further out and found another prospect; he looked at the system and there was no sign of intelligent life. “First Fang, I may have found a prospect. May I suggest we send a ship there to just scan the system and have it return immediately?”

  “Where is it?” The Sensor Male sent the data to his display and he looked across the galaxy and saw there was no intelligent life in the system. “Send a ship. Even if it doesn’t return we will know we have found what we’re looking for.”

  The Sensor Male turned to his board and ordered a transport to go and look at the system. He thought, “If it doesn’t return; should we go?”

  “Matt, an Eight Leg transport just jumped into the Begron system and then disappeared,” Al said.

  “That’s where they’re going next. Stem go ahead and move the planet and replace it with a barren one. Take the screen with Begron so they will see it when they arrive. We aren’t quite ready to hit them yet. I’m sure they will investigate before they move on. We should be ready by the next one.”

  “We’ll have it done within two hours.”

  The Eight Leg mother ship appeared at the jump limit and launched its ships. The Sensor Male looked at the system and saw a planet where there was none on the transport’s scan. How does this happen? He turned and looked at the Ship’s Male, “There is a planet where there was none. How is this happening?”

  “I don’t know; I also see no sign of intelligent life on that planet. Do you?”

  The Sensor Male twisted its head upside down indicating his frustration, “No, but if the planet could be hidden from our scan, it’s possible life could also be hidden.”

  “Then let us go and see.”

  The Sensor Male turned back to his display and worried. Nothing in the data ba
nks matched with what was happening on this mission. He hoped the family arrived soon. This did not feel like things were going to go well.

  After twelve hours the huge fleet arrived at the planet and looked at the barren, lifeless planet. There were old cities that were standing in ruins from some kind of long ago conflict. Their skeletal remains stood with overgrowth of plants and the dark green of corrosion. The streets were cracked and most bridges were collapsed. There was some sea life but land animals were totally absent.

  The Sensor Male looked out at the dead planet and said, “How could anyone totally destroy a planet like this?”

  The Ship’s Male raised two legs and said, “We are in the business of doing something just like this.”

  “No we aren’t,” The Sensor Male replied. “We harvest a life form, maybe two, but we leave the planet vibrant with life to develop new intelligent beings. We cultivate and harvest our universes like a good farmer should. “This,” and he indicated his display, “is blasphemous.”

  The Ship’s Male looked at the planet and said, “Why didn’t we see this on our first scan? Obviously, there is no one here that could cause it.”

  “First Fang, is it possible that there is a life form that can hide themselves from our sensors?”

  “Perhaps, are you suggesting that there may be life on the planet and we don’t see it?”

  “I don’t know, but we should go down and make sure.”

  “Issue the orders and let’s see what happens.”

  The Sensor Male turned to his boards and began sending out the orders. Millions of ships landed on the planet and swarmed around the surface and found nothing. The Ship’s Male watched his display and could see that there truly was no intelligent life on the planet. “Find another candidate for us to explore. We won’t send a scout this time but will go ourselves and see what happens.”

  The Sensor Male had been looking even before the fleet arrived at this system and had found two other prospects. “I have discovered a prospect not far from this system.”

  “Recall the ships and let’s go see.”

  “Matt, the probe shows the mother ship recalling its ships.”

  Matt shook his head. “They didn’t waste any time. We’re still not ready.” Matt thought a moment and then said, “Al, which system with a hidden planet is closest to the Eight Legs current location?”

  “There are two; one of them is pretty close.”

  Matt looked at Melanie, “Where do you think they are going?”

  “The closest system; they want to see if the planet is invisible when they go with the mother ship instead of sending a scout.”

  Matt hit his com, “Stem, move the planet out of the closest system and don’t replace it. Let’s see what happens.”

  The Eight leg fleet arrived in the Ojcek system directly above the plane of the planets and scanned their positions. The Sensor Male immediately said, “First Fang, the fourth planet is missing.”

  “What do you mean it’s missing?”

  “There is no planet where there was one during the last harvest.”

  “Is there debris where it might have exploded or been hit by a large asteroid?”

  “No, there is no evidence a planet ever existed in that orbit.”

  “Could the planet possibly be hidden?”

  “I don’t know how they could hide a planet but if they could then it is hidden quite well; I cannot detect anything in that orbit.”

  “Launch our attack craft and distribute them around the star in the orbit that planet should be in. Let’s look all the way around the star.”

  “Launching ships, First Fang.”

  Matt, Melanie, and Stem sat on Aladdin and watched the feed from the probe as millions of attack craft move toward the orbit from which the planet was just moved.

  “What do you think they will do?”

  “I’m not certain, Al. My guess is that they will be pretty confused. If it were me, I would move on to the next planet. We could keep them jumping indefinitely since they only have one mother ship in our universe. It would be a different story when the full fleet arrives.”

  Stem listened to Matt and thought, “I think I might have a way to really confuse them.”

  “What’s that, Stem,” Matt asked?

  “What would you do if you don’t find a planet in this system?”

  “I don’t know; I might go back and look at the last planet and see if there was any evidence of celestial damage that I missed.”

  “What if we move that planet out of the system and when they go look for it we move it here.”

  Matt chuckled, “Yeah, that would be fun but we don’t want them communicating with the main fleet that planets are being moved. We could do one thing; we could hide the planet and when the ship goes back to report it missing turn off the screen when the mother ship comes looking. I suspect they already think we can hide planets or they wouldn’t be jumping to these systems.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Melanie, I’m hoping they will leave a ship at the planet and then go back and look at the second system. When they leave for the second system, we should be ready to teleport in and try some of our new weapons on the ship they left in the first system. They may just send a ship back to the first system to make sure it’s still there. Either way, it may offer an opportunity to attack another ship. Stem, if we can make this happen, I’ll need a portable star drive to jump the ship away if we kill it; we won’t be able to teleport it.”

  “You’re assuming we will be able to kill it.”

  “If we can’t, I’d rather find out attacking one ship than the whole fleet.”

  Stem leaned to the left and said, “You make a good point. That is if they do what you think they’ll do.”

  “Let’s see what happens. They may just go on to the next system but if it were me, I’d want to take another look at that dead planet to see if it matches the one that’s missing.”

  “Matt, I’ll check with Sprig and see if we have a ship ready for combat operations.”

  “Good idea, Al; the ship the invaders send will probably be a transport.”

  “It will be, Matt.”

  Stem looked at Melanie and asked, “How do you know that?”

  “They’ve lost two small ships already; they won’t take the risk of sending that type of ship alone in a system.”

  The Sensor Male listened to the attack craft reporting their findings; nothing. He looked at the data from the first harvest and the planet was green and full of life. Several different species were not far from developing intelligence. What could have happened to make it disappear? He looked at the planet they had investigated before arriving in this system and compared it once more to the planet that was there during the last harvest. Then it struck him, “There’s not enough water.”

  The Ship’s Male heard him, “What did you say?”

  “I was just examining the last planet and compared it to the data we have from the last harvest and there’s not enough water on the planet.”

  “What do you mean?”

  The Sensor Male sent a picture of the planet from the last harvest and one taken on their flight into the previous system. He looked at the two and he had to agree, there were much bigger oceans during the last harvest. “Could the water have been locked up in the polar ice caps?”

  “I didn’t really scan them to make that determination. May I dispatch a ship to go make that scan?”

  “Send a transport. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m not sure, First Fang; I wonder if it’s the same planet. As I look at the two, I can see differences that just haven’t had enough time to happen.”

  “You know massive changes can happen in just a million years? The last harvest was eight million years ago.”

  “Yes, but that water has to be somewhere.”

  “It might have gone underground.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” The Sensor Male thought a moment and then said. “I w
ould still like a better scan.”

  “Then send the ship.”

  “This just in for your viewing pleasure; a transport is heading out to the jump limit,” Al reported.

  “Where, Al?” Al adjusted the feed and focused in on the large ship moving toward the outer system. “Boy, you picked that one ship right out; I’m impressed.”

  “Don’t swell his head bigger than it already is, Matt. The probe is set to alarm anytime one of their ships changes their direction dramatically from the others.”

  “Fly Girl, who asked you in this conversation?”

  “Oh relax; we know you’re smart.”

  “Al, what does Sprig say about a ship being ready?”

  “The Megaship Rossville has finished its trials and is ready if we want to take a shot at them.”

  “That ship was Admiral Dorg-Ross’s old ship,” Melanie said.

  Matt looked at her, “Really; are you sure?”

  “Oh yes, I know everything about the Cainth Admiral. Remember, he’s the one that ordered the colonists killed on Ross.”

  “Do you hold a grudge about that, Melanie?”

  “Absolutely not; he paid for his crime in ways that he should not have endured. My people love the old Admiral and I hope that someday I’ll have a resting place close to his.”

  “Well, his ship is coming and I think I want to be on board to watch.”

  “Not without me,” Melanie said.

  “Or me,” Stem said.

  ‘Or me,” said Al.

  “Or me,” said Fly Girl.”

  “I can see Melanie and Stem going on board. Just how are the two of you going to fit?”

  “Matt, their landing bay will hold six ships our size; it won’t be a problem.”