by Saxon Andrew
Grady closed his mouth and shrugged, “Ok, I understand.”
Taffy sat down on her chair and said, “She had bigger feet but I’m bigger up top.”
“That’s true,” Grady agreed.
“I’m just saying,” Taffy added. Grady chuckled and heard a loud ping. He immediately straightened up and stared intently at the console’s display, “The satellite has detected multiple objects moving inside the inner planets!” Grady pressed a button and said over his helmet’s microphone, “Bob, Robbie, go to diagnostic and repair program immediately!” He turned to Taffy, “Power up the blasters and get your targeting program running.”
“Grady, I’m not sure I can do this.”
“I know you can and you’ll do far better than I would trying to fly the ship and operate the blasters. Just do the best you can, Taffy.”
Taffy nodded and plugged her helmet into the console. Grady could see the apprehension on her face. “Taffy, there are thousands of aliens on each of those ships moving in. Are you up to firing on them?”
“I only have one issue with that, Grady.”
“What is that?”
“I wish there were more of them on those ships. I have absolutely no problem killing every one of them for what they did to Britannia!”
Grady smiled; she was ready. Grady turned the ship vertical and activated the FTL drive. The ship flew away from the planet below at an unbelievable speed and Taffy asked with wide eyes, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to maximum speed to fill the dark energy containment tanks to maximum pressure. Once that’s done, I’m turning around and flying into the alien ships from directly above them!” Taffy nodded and connected her helmet to the tactical and targeting programs. She lowered her faceplate and stared at the blaster’s designators. She moved them around the screen in her helmet until her tension and nerves calmed down. She took long, slow breaths and blew them out slowly. Grady heard her and mimicked her. It wouldn’t be long; the dark energy tanks were filling quickly.
• • •
The containment tanks showed maximum pressure and Grady turned the Rabbit around and headed back on a track the computer put on his small display. The ship was still flying at an incredible speed and he shut down the FTL drive at the point in space given by the computer. He wanted to scan the incoming ships but knew that would lead to the Rabbit being detected. He stared at the track and glanced at the optical image on the console’s large monitor. Then the alien fleet appeared, and he saw they were moving through space in four equally sized formations, “Computer, how many ships?”
“Six-hundred total in four formations,” the computer answered. He turned the Rabbit slightly and headed toward the rear formation. The other three formations ahead of the rear formation would have to come about to attack. “Taffy, the blasters aren’t at full power. Target all three blasters on one ship.”
“Yes, Sir.” Taffy watched the formation on her faceplate and it was growing in size by the second. She was able to see the individual ships and she used her helmet to designate an alien ship on the outer edge of the formation close to the rear. She blinked, and a blue light appeared on the ship. All three-blasters swiveled and locked on the ship as Taffy designated another ship close to it. A green flashing dot appeared on the second alien ship; the blasters would not fire on it until she released the firing button. Grady flew in at high-speed and began turning away from the formation. Taffy pressed the red button on the arm of her chair and all three blasters opened fire at the first designated ship. She held the red button down as the beams hit the ship, but it didn’t appear to be damaged. Suddenly, it went up in a massive explosion and Taffy released the red button and pressed it again. The blasters fired on the second designated ship as Grady flew by the formation as Taffy held the red button down. Several alien warships opened fire hitting the Rabbit with two brilliant beams; instantly, the Rabbit’s blaster beams intensified into brilliant white beams. The second ship immediately blew up as Grady whipped the ship away. Two more blaster beams hit the Rabbit and Grady shouted, “THE BLASTERS ARE AT FULL POWER. START DESIGNATING INDIVIDUAL SHIPS WITH EACH BLASTER!”
The alien formation broke apart like a hornet’s nest hitting the ground. The alien ships scattered as Grady whipped the Rabbit around and moved in on a group of six ships.” Taffy designated three of them then designated the second three. She pressed the firing button and the first three went up in explosions instantly. She released the button and pressed it again. The second three exploded as Grady turned the ship away from a large group of alien ships bearing down on him. Aliens ships began exploding as Taffy designated ships at her fastest speed. Grady went vertical and the Rabbit was hit by three more blaster beams. Grady looked at the temperature gauge and saw it was approaching the red zone on the dial. He suddenly felt a vibration in his feet and knew the cooling system had activated; the needle stopped and move slightly down. He dove into the alien warships and ten more ships exploded. Grady turned on the scanner and saw the ships from the front formations were turning around and moving to cut him off. The temperature was rising again as the Rabbit was hit by more blaster beams and he dove the ship in an impossible move. He pushed the thruster handle fully forward and the Rex Rabbit scampered away at a speed too fast for the aliens to follow. The alien ships turned to pursue but in three minutes, the tiny ship had disappeared from their scanners. Grady whipped the Rabbit right and saw none of the pursuing aliens turned toward his new course. “Computer, lock in this distance from the alien ships as the limit of their scanning range!”
“Range is locked in.”
Grady looked at the temperature gauge and it was just outside the red zone. As he stared at it, the needle began quickly dropping. He blew out a breath he had been holding and moved far below the planet. The cooling systems were handling the heat and he turned the Rabbit back toward the planet and moved outside the alien’s scanning range.
“What are you doing?”
Grady turned to Taffy, “I want to see if they attack the planet, Taffy.”
“Isn’t that why they came back, Grady?”
“Yes, but they’re not falling back in their original formations. Something is going on. It appears they have focused on finding us and aren’t organizing to move on the planet.” Taffy focused on the tactical feed on her face plate and saw Grady was right. She thought about the alien warships she had destroyed with the blasters and felt no remorse; they deserved it.
• • •
The Commander of the alien fleet yelled over the fleet’s communication frequency, “ALL SHIPS WILL SPREAD OUT AND FIND THE VESSEL THAT ATTACKED! NOTIFY ME THE MOMENT YOU FIND IT!!”
The alien commanding the Commander’s Warship turned to her, “What do you expect them to do if they find it? That ship is faster than our warships and will just fly out of their scanning range.”
The Commander turned and snarled, “THAT VESSEL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TWENTY OF THAT PLANET!! THE ATTACK IS ON HOLD!!”
The alien hesitated and asked, “Why would you stop the attack?”
The Commander turned her attention to the ship leader and glared at him with all six-eyes. The leader changed from his normal blue color to almost black, showing his sudden fear. The Commander almost executed him on the spot but gathered her temper; this one was related to the High Leader. The Commander knew he was there to spy on her and pass on anything he saw to the Supreme Board. Her color changed from orange to her normal blue color and she said in a neutral tone, “That vessel clearly has superior technology that would strengthen the Domain’s military, wouldn’t you agree?” The ship leader’s color began returning to normal as the Commander’s color turned to its normal blue. His head went down into his body showing agreement. “That ship is a survivor from an earlier attack our scouts recorded; it belonged to the fleet that was defeated. Our scouts recorded numerous examples of that ship before they were destroyed by another group of the species on that planet.” The ship leader nodded again. The
Commander continued, “The only reason that vessel is here is due to there being survivors on the planet. What do you think will happen if we remove those survivors?”
The ship leader hesitated and answered, “It will leave and find another place to survive.”
The Commander smiled, “Very good! That’s exactly what it will do, and we’ll lose the opportunity to examine it and take its technology. I’m ordering an additional three war fleets to move here far outside the planet and surround it. Once we detect that ship, they’ll move in and prevent it from escaping.”
“We could lose more ships, Commander.”
“I don’t care if we lose most of them as long as we capture that vessel! We’ll hold position away from the planet and wait for the fleets to arrive.” She paused and smiled, “That ship won’t leave as long as there are survivors still on the planet.” The ship leader agreed and began recalling the fleet back into their formations.
• • •
Taffy stared at her faceplate and asked, “Shouldn’t they be able to detect our scanner?”
“I’m not using it.” Taffy raised her faceplate and turned to him, “How are we seeing this?”
“I’m using the Vast Array to gather these images. I’ve had to drastically change the array’s focus in order to bring the view in close enough.” Taffy blinked. “The vast array is located high above the sun and was used by scientists to take images of distant stars and galaxies. It normally sent it’s signals to a destroyed satellite, but I’ve managed to get the satellite that is still operational to start collecting its data and forward it to the Rabbit’s computer. It was the array that detected their fleet moving in.”
Taffy lowered her faceplate and after a few minutes asked, “What are they doing?”
Grady raised his shoulders, I’m not sure.”
Taffy waited and asked, “If you had to guess, what would you say?”
Grady removed his helmet and snapped it on the back of his chair. He turned around, leaned back, and put his hands behind his head. Taffy removed her helmet and saw the tactical feed was now on the monitor’s display. She turned to him and saw him staring at the monitor absently. “I honestly don’t know what they’re up to, Taffy. If I say anything that you don’t agree with, interrupt me, ok?” Taffy nodded.
“I think our attack has caused them some issues. Their fleet is holding its position, which seems to indicate that they have delayed their attack on the planet.” Taffy nodded. “The question is…why would they do that?” Grady paused and continued, “I don’t think it’s because they think we represent a real danger to them.”
“Why not?” Taffy asked.
“They saw us break off the attack to flee when we were about to be overwhelmed by the other formations.” Taffy shrugged and nodded. “That must mean something else is going on.”
“I would think they’d want to attack the survivors, Grady.”
“Why?”
“Well, they might believe we would attack them again to defend them and they’re worried about losing more of their ships. If they kill the survivors, there wouldn’t be a reason for us to continue our attacks.”
Grady sat up and turned to Taffy, “I believe you’ve answered the question but not for the reason you think.” Taffy’s head tilted, and her eyebrows came together. “They want the Rabbit, Taffy.” Taffy shook her head slightly as Grady added, “What would happen if they killed all the survivors?”
“I suppose we’d leave and find another place to survive,” She answered.
“And they would lose the opportunity to learn the technology in our ship. This tiny vessel just destroyed more than a dozen of their warships, that must have them concerned. They want to know how we did it; they want the Rabbit to learn its technology.”
“Certainly, one small ship wouldn’t stop them from attacking?”
“Taffy, you’d never believe the things a civilization will do to increase the power of their military. Killing a few survivors wouldn’t be nearly as important as examining our ship and increasing the power of their warships. We’ll find out shortly.”
“How?”
“If they don’t start moving toward the planet, they’re making plans to capture us. They know as long as there are surviving members of our species on the planet, we probably won’t leave.”
• • •
Two hours later, Taffy turned to Grady, “They haven’t moved.”
“I see that.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We can’t prevent them from killing the survivors, Taffy; they outnumber us too much.” Grady turned to her, “We’re going to go and attempt to find an advanced civilization that can take them on.”
“Grady, this is a giant galaxy and finding another advanced civilization is impossible. The Union has never found one and they’ve gone out looking.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve heard my father talking about it in a meeting he forced me to attend. You don’t even know where to start looking.”
Grady smiled, “I know one advanced civilization that might help us.”
Taffy’s shoulders moved back, and her chin came up, “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Our species didn’t originate on our planet, Taffy. We came from somewhere else.”
“You’re talking about that myth of a mother world of humanity called Earth.”
“I am.”
“But the Union searched for it for a very long time and never found it.”
“They looked in the wrong place,” Grady responded.
“Oh! And you know where to look for it?” Taffy replied with sarcasm in her voice.
“Taffy, the Union centered their searches on the core of the galaxy because that is where the oldest stars are located. I believe Earth is in the opposite direction; it’s located toward the outer arms.”
Taffy considered what he was saying and then asked, “Why do you believe that, Grady.”
“Our ancient ancestors arrived on a giant colony ship that did not have faster than light technology. They traveled close to the speed of light and it took them a very long time to arrive at Britannia. What would possess people to take a colony ship out into the universe without a stardrive?”
“I can only think of one thing, Grady, fear.”
Grady smiled, “I think you’re right. However, they wouldn’t be able to change course much and I believe they flew directly away from Earth toward the center of the galaxy. All we need do is align our ship with the central black hole and our planet. We’ll stay on that line and head out into the outer arms of our galaxy.”
“Why are you so sure Earth is located on that course?”
“Because it wasn’t found near the center of the galaxy.” Grady replied.
“What happens if we don’t find it?”
“Taffy, we’re going to have to find somewhere else to live. This is as good a time as any to start looking.”
Taffy sighed and asked in a soft voice, “Why do you think the location of Earth was erased from the Colony Ship’s data?”
Grady lowered his chin and raised his eyebrows, “You said it earlier…fear.”
Chapter Eight
Grady moved the Rabbit to line up the planet with the center of the galaxy, as Taffy shook her head, “I just don’t understand why you think Earth is located on this course you’ve chosen.”
“Taffy, you didn’t go to university, did you?”
“No, but I had expensive tutors as I grew up and they taught me a lot of things taught in universities.”
Grady smiled, “What about ancient history?”
“I was taught about it…some.”
“Taffy, I went to university and most of the ancient history I’ve learned was taken from the military’s databases. No one knows why our ancestors erased most of the data in the colony ship’s computer, but they did. The reasons for them leaving Earth have never been determined, but there was some information about the exodus. The Britannia was
not the only colony ship launched from Earth.” Taffy’s eyes widened slightly. “The written records were all destroyed but the data in the navigation system was still intact,” Grady continued. “An image of the Britannia accelerating away from Earth revealed two more giant colony ships still in orbit above it. That means there were at least three colonies settled.”
“If they weren’t destroyed searching for a planet!” Taffy interjected.
Grady nodded slightly, “There is that. However, the colony ship that settled our planet was successful in finding a habitable planet to colonize. The ship’s data showed that it flew for five years before it found the planet it settled.”
“Five years?” Taffy asked with her brow furrowed.
“Five years inside the ship, Taffy. The Britannia spent a year accelerating close to the speed of light. At that point, relativity became a huge factor and time inside the ship slowed down tremendously compared to time passing outside the ship, understand?”
“I understand relativity, Grady. Just how much time passed outside the ship?”
Grady leaned forward and tapped his console, “Let’s see if we can find out. Computer, compute the following. How far would a ship travel if it was flying at a speed close to light speed for five years?”
“How close to light speed?” the computer inquired.
“Estimate a speed between 98 and 99.7 percent of the speed of light.”
The computer answered, “The distance traveled would be between fifteen and twenty-thousand light years.”
Grady was surprised by the number and Taffy saw his expression, “What’s wrong?”
“Taffy, our planet is only eight or nine light years from the galaxy’s core; there’s no possible way Earth could have been located in that direction if the computer is right about the distance. The Union had to know that when they said they were looking for Earth toward the galaxy’s center.”