by Saxon Andrew
“Haven’t we already done that?”
Gunny shrugged, “Who knows. The point is that we’ve done a good job of cutting into their numbers. Now we have to see if delaying them as much as we have shortens the time they can search for Earth.”
“How are the blackouts going?”
“Far from perfect. How do you notify everyone on the planet to not use electricity when huge sections of the planet don’t have a means where they can be contacted? The oasis out in the Sahara has the food stations but no electronic communications. The same is true for the Outback in Australia. They’re working on it but every time they order a blackout, numerous places are detected by our ships. We’ll hope for the best but it doesn’t look good if an Invader Warship comes close to the planet.”
Kitch wiped the sweat off his brow and shook his head, “I didn’t know a black man could sweat this much.”
“Get in line, Kitch. All of us are sweating this.”
“Easy for you to say. You’ve fought in tight spots before.”
“Yeah, but nothing like this. We’re all novices at this and the worst is still ahead of us.”
“You could have gone all day and not told me that.”
“Ok, I take it back.”
“Too late! Are you ready for the next attack?”
“We’re waiting for the computers to link with the probes and give us the coordinates we should fire from. The invaders are on the move again so it shouldn’t be much longer.”
Chapter Five
Jason left the bridge and went to the landing bay. He was depressed at his new assignment and wondered what he had done to tick off the Admiral. He arrived and saw his Attack Pod was being serviced. Lt. Maxwell saw him walk into the giant bay and yelled, “We’ll be done in twenty minutes.”
“Take your time!” Jason went over to the small cafeteria and ordered a meal. He didn’t know when he’d have another full meal. He only had the food pellets to eat on his Pod.
Samantha Young saw Jason eating alone so she took her tray over and looked at him, “Do you mind if I join you?”
“No, I’m not going to be good company, though.”
Samantha put her tray down and said, “Why not?”
“I’ve been relieved of my current duty and assigned to being the liaison with the Silver Ship sitting above the planet.”
“Really?”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“I would think you’d be the last one chosen for that duty.”
Jason leaned back in his chair and stared at her for a moment. He leaned forward and began eating is meal, “Why?”
“Because you’re always ready to pick a fight. I would think that would be the last thing we’d want to do at this moment.”
“We could have taken them.”
“Are you so sure about that?”
“The Sentinels would have ensured we’d win.”
“So, you’re saying the Sentinels could take them.”
“We probably could as well.”
“And what price would we have to pay if we used the Sentinels?”
“What makes you think there would be a price?”
“You need look no further than the Fellowship. However, I’m sure there was a reason you were chosen.”
“You’re making me feel soooo much better about this.”
Samantha laughed, “I’m taking your place on the bridge.”
“WHAT?”
“Yeah, I know. I’m not exactly the aggressive sort.”
“You wouldn’t think that by the way you just came at me.”
Samantha tilted her head and after a moment, smiled, “Maybe I am more aggressive than I thought.”
Jason saw the Lieutenant motion to him and he picked up his tray, “Good luck. You have a good team working with you. If you have any questions, Audrey is the one to go to.”
Samantha stared at him and shook her head, “Thanks. That was nice of you.”
Jason sighed and walked away. He said over his shoulder, “I’m really not that bad.” He emptied his tray and walked over to his Pod.
“She’s all tuned up and ready to go, Captain.”
“Thanks. I’ll check back in later.”
“Be safe.”
“You know I will.” Jason climbed into the cockpit and saw the systems were already activated. “It’s been a long time Astro.”
“Indeed it has. It’s good to see you again.”
“Let’s go out and introduce ourselves to our Silver Guest.”
“You don’t appear to like this.”
“How would you like to try rolling on the ground?”
“I don’t have wheels. That could prove to be problematic.”
“Just like me being an emissary. I’m not built for it.”
“You can change, I can’t grow wheels.”
“We’ll see. Let’s go.”
• • •
The Pod left the landing bay and accelerated toward the Silver Ship hanging in orbit. As he moved closer he thought, “Just how am I supposed to communicate with it?”
“Just focus your thoughts and think them clearly.”
“Whoa! Did you just read my mind?”
“No, I heard what you were thinking.”
“What’s the difference?”
“If I read your mind, I’d see the things in your mind that you aren’t thinking about.”
“Now I know this is a bad idea.”
“Do you say that because you don’t want to be here?”
“So you can see that?”
“Obviously.”
“I’m sorry but I’m just not cut out for politics,”
“Do you see your function here as political?”
“Isn’t it?”
“Actually, politics as you know it would fail miserably because I can see what you’re actually thinking and could ignore what you’re saying. Your task here is far from political.”
“Then what is my task?”
“I believe you were sent here so I can get an idea about what your species is all about.”
“Then I’m the worst choice. I’m a fighter; I’ve never been described as a peacemaker.”
“Perhaps that is something I should see.” The Silver Ship paused and said, “You should know that it was your thoughts that we initially saw that made us decide to make you leave.”
“WHAT?”
“We initially thought that you were the leader on your ship.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because your chair was higher than your commander’s. We assumed you were in command. It was only after we began communicating that we learned who was in command.”
“What was it about my mind that you didn’t like?”
“You wanted a war.” Jason was silent and the Silver Ship said after a moment, “You did want one, didn’t you?”
Jason sighed, “Yes, I guess I did. I was in charge of the weapons on our battleship and I usually want to use them. I thought I was the perfect choice for my position.”
“You were.”
“Then why did the Admiral send me out here?”
“Because that is all you’d ever be good for. You would never rise to a higher station. I sense the Admiral sees more in you than you do.”
Jason took a breath and shook his head, “Well, if we’re going to be stuck with each other, what do I call you?”
“Piper.”
“Is that your real name?”
“My real name takes about two minutes to say; however, that part is something you can pronounce.”
“Well, it’s good to meet you, Piper. My name is…”
“Jason Goddard.”
“Yes, it is.” Jason paused and looked out of his viewport at the five hundred yard Silver Ship next to his Pod. “That was a real brave thing you did coming in and attacking one of our ships. I didn’t think it was a good idea to place one of you in that sort of danger.”
“Is that what you think happened?”
Jason stared at the ship and said, “Isn’t it?”
“Of course not. We’d never deliberately place one of us in danger.”
Jason thought and shook his head, “The ship was unmanned.”
“It was remote controlled.”
Jason stared out the viewport and after a moment he heard, “You’re wondering how many of us are on this vessel?”
“I am.”
“It’s just me.”
“WHAT?”
“I am part of this ship and the ship is part of me. We are basically a single organism.”
“I did hear you tell the Admiral that you don’t live on planets. Does that mean you spend your entire life in space?”
“We do.”
“Then why would you object to us living on a planet in your territory?”
“Where do you think all of the enemies we’ve faced over the centuries came from?”
Jason sighed, “From planets.”
“Yes. And with someone as aggressive as you are in command, there was no way we were going to allow you stay.”
“What changed your minds?”
“Your Admiral figured out we were telepathic and sent a thought telling us he didn’t want to have to fire on our ship. We were surprised when he communicated instead of you. When his officer fired and deliberately didn’t destroy the drone, that made us start reevaluating who you were.”
“I am the exception, not the rule among my fellow sailors.”
“Once we took a look, we saw that. However, we still wanted you gone. It was your Admiral stopping the Sentinel from assisting you and then demanding he not harm the Blue Ship that made us rethink our position. Once we saw the recordings he sent, we couldn’t in good conscience send you away.”
“How could you know the recordings were real?”
“One of us went and took a look. It was as your recordings depicted.”
“You went all the way across my galaxy and returned during your discussion?”
“I didn’t but one of the others did.”
“The Admiral was wrong and so was I.”
“About what?”
“That remote controlled ship you sent in was not as powerful as you are.”
Piper laughed, “How did you come to that conclusion?”
“I’m pretty certain that a civilization will have to arrive at a minimum level of technology before you’ll open communications. That ship was set up for that minimum standard. The Admiral said the Blue Ship was the big stick in this galaxy; he was wrong. You are.”
“You are much more than I thought, Jason Goddard. No one else has ever seen through our subterfuge.”
“I can’t help but wonder how your species reproduces. If all of you are part of the ship you live in, how does your species increase in population?”
“We don’t reproduce like your species.”
“No?” There was a moment of silence and Jason said, “I’m sorry if I offended you by asking about this.”
“No, it’s not that. Do you mind if I look in your mind for the right description?”
“No, you can see everything anyway.”
“Not really. I can only see what you’re thinking.”
“You can’t look beyond that?”
“I can but we don’t once communication has started. Give me a moment.” Jason sat on Astro and didn’t feel anything in his head. “Ah, I found it.”
“Found what?”
“The term to describe our reproduction. We are like what you call an amoeba.”
“You mean you split into two different identical beings?”
“Something like that. The two are identical initially but they start changing immediately.”
“How?”
“Once the new one is placed in a ship, it leaves to find its own destiny. It will live through different life experiences than the first and will thus be changed over time. After a thousand years, it’s really hard to determine where we originated.”
“So you’re saying your life experiences are what make you who you are?”
“The same is true of you.”
“The jury is still out on what has the most impact on a human, genetics or experience.”
“Why are you so ready to fight?”
“I guess I was born with that in me.”
“Don’t you often describe yourself as having to fight for anything you ever received? No one ever gave you anything?”
“I thought you didn’t read our minds.”
“We saw that initially before we opened a dialogue.”
“That’s how my life has been.”
“And that’s why you are like you are today.”
Jason thought for a moment and slowly shook his head, “Yeah, I guess I can see that.”
“You didn’t have to fight for this planet.”
Jason started chuckling and said, “Piper, I think I’m going to like talking with you. You’re right. We didn’t have to fight for it.”
“Perhaps there’s a lesson there to be learned.”
“You think?”
Piper laughed and said, “Yes, I think this is going to be fun.”
“By the way, how long does it take before your species splits into two beings?”
“It really varies. What usually causes it is when our minds get full of experiences and need a refreshment. It’s at that point that the reproduction process starts.”
‘How long does that normally take?”
“Anywhere from nine hundred to fifteen hundred years.”
Jason was stunned, “Piper, how old are you?”
“Age is a relative term.”
“How old?”
“Twenty thousand of your years, give or take a thousand.”
“Oh my God! I have so much to learn from you.”
“And I, you.”
“Come on, Piper! What could I teach you?”
“For starters, how two species that are so different are so much alike? This has really been a refreshing time for me. I find tension, stress, humor and happiness in equal measures in you and they appear to all function in harmony. I want to see how that happens.”
“Does this refreshment cause you to want to reproduce?”
“It’s close to my time but not soon.”
“Now that should be interesting.”
“You should also start thinking about finding a mate. You’re overdue.”
Jason’s mouth fell open and he could only shake his head.
• • •
Six hours later, Audrey contacted Jason, “The Admiral says you can take a break and come on board.”
“Audrey, I’m fine out here. I have enough to eat and I’ll contact you and let you know when I need to return.”
Audrey’s head went back and she looked at Chad. Chad smiled and nodded. “That’s fine, Captain Goddard. If our guest has any needs, please let us know.”
Jason thought, “Do you?”
“No.”
“He’s fine, Audrey.”
• • •
Audrey turned and looked at Chad, who said, “It appears our lad is learning.”
Audrey tilted her head, “It appears he is.”
• • •
“Lukas, it looks like our delaying tactics are about over.”
“It does look that way. I’ve ordered Gunny and Kitchens to stay out of harm’s way.”
“Do you think it worked?”
“I don’t know. The invaders still have millions of ships that are going to arrive here.”
“The fleets are out of DM rounds to fire at them.”
“We’ve had the converters working overtime at the Magnetar but they’ll have to come back home to replenish their supplies. The invaders will arrive at the edge of the galaxy before they could rearm and go back out.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m skipping the converters out to Andromeda to start collecting there. We’ve pretty much done all we can here.”
Lukas leaned back, “I’ve sent diagrams of our technology to the Welken Royal. I don’t think the Invaders will waste time attempting to conquer them. They’ll be scanning for Pat and won’t have the provisions to really go to war. Most of them are sending colony ships to another galaxy.”
“Are they going to Andromeda?”
“No Salud, I sent them the videos of the trouble we had there and they’re moving toward galaxies further away from the Virgo Cluster. Andromeda is too close.”
“Why did we go there if that’s the case?”
“Because it is our intent to continue the fight. We needed to be relatively close to make that happen. I’m still not sure we’ll be able to build the necessary forces to fight them.”
“But we’ve destroyed so many of their ships.”
“You’re forgetting the other civilization in M-87. I suspect that if the Orange Ships fail, they will be called in by the ones leading the attacks.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Why do you think they’ve divided that galaxy without going to war? Their version of the Sentinels have probably prohibited it. That means they control both forces. Have you looked at Loree’s latest reports?”
“No. Have I missed something?”
“If you remember, when she left M-87 after the destruction of the conduit, she deliberately flew toward M-84.”
“I remember.”
“Our probes have shown a huge fleet of green ships leaving M-87 and headed toward M-84. I suspect they’re being sent to check out if there is a civilization that could represent a threat to them there. I believe they would have sent the Orange Ships if they weren’t tied down invading us. That has to mean their Sentinels can direct both of them.”
“So we haven’t even put a dent in the total number of ships they have to use?”
“It does appear that way. Remember, M-87 is three times larger than Andromeda and the Milky Way combined. This is not a war that can be won or lost quickly.” Lukas paused and took Salud’s hands, “I was wondering if you would go back to Boston with me before we’re forced to leave for Andromeda?”
“Why do you want to go there?”
“I was hoping you would agree to marry me there.”
Salud’s eyes went wide and she wrapped her arms around Lukas’ neck. She started crying and Lukas said, “If you don’t want to, I understand.”
“No, I mean yes. I’ll marry you, Lukas. I’ve been hoping you would ask for so long.”