by Saxon Andrew
“We need to start on the other side of the galaxy.”
“Why?”
Audrey looked away from the galaxy, “Because if we want to find a more advanced civilization, it will have to be a long way from the nebula.”
Chris nodded, “Or they would have already encountered the civilizations in the Nebula.”
“I’m pretty certain that any that are close to the nebula have already been encountered and the civilizations in the nebula were more advanced.”
“I have to agree.”
“Do you see that star cluster on the other side of the black hole?”
“The one with the huge blue stars.”
“Yes. It has more than six million type G stars in it. Our chances are greater if we go there.”
“Willow, take us to the outer edge of that star cluster and move into normal space.”
“Skipping now.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Listen for war.”
Willow entered the void and Audrey stared at the pitch-black darkness of the place they were traveling. She shuddered slightly and knew that being there was an anomaly that would never be comfortable for any species that evolved in normal space. She heard Chris say, “Willow, is your Dark Matter reservoir full?”
“It is.”
“And do you have any of the magnets in storage that were used to destroy the conduits?”
“I do, why do you ask?”
“We’re going to take a page out of the invaders’ handbook. We’re going to go into the storage bay and put the magnets on the walls. Before you enter normal space, I want you to release some of the compressed Dark Matter and allow it to surround you.”
“Is that how they use the Dark Matter Cloud?”
“Their ships have a magnetic field and I believe it’s what keeps the cloud around them. I want to avoid being seen.”
Chris looked at Audrey, “Let’s go place the magnets.”
Chris climbed between the seats and opened the port to the storage bay. Audrey followed him and they took ten magnets out of the storage lockers while Willow had the artificial gravity turned off. They activated the magnets and they locked on the walls. They climbed back into the cockpit and Chris said, “Release some of the Dark Matter.” The cloud blew out of the hull valve and then moved back toward the ship. The cloud surrounded the pod and Willow entered normal space. Chris activated the monitor and said, “Good, we can see through it.”
“How is that possible?”
“Dark Matter doesn’t interact with normal energy or matter. Willow can extend an antenna outside the cloud and we’ll be able to see what’s around us. Take us into normal space.”
The pod entered normal space and Chris closed his eyes. Audrey said, “What are you doing?”
Willow said, “Don’t bother him right now. He’s allowing his mind to search for thoughts in that cluster. Give him some time.”
Audrey nodded and opened a bag of food pellets. She took two out and began chewing them. She had to admit that this was proving to be much more interesting than she expected. She leaned back and closed her eyes. She hadn’t slept much the night before and she was quickly asleep. Chris sat motionless in his chair and let his mind roam free.
• • •
Lukas and Salud stood on the Bridge of the Boston and waited. They had been traveling in the void for six hours and now their destination was just a few seconds away. Captain Talbot announced, “Normal space in five seconds.”
The Boston broke into normal space and they saw Earth hanging in space. The fires had gone out months before but the planet still had a heavy cloud cover over most of it. The Boston began moving in toward the planet and a close-up view of the Moon appeared on the main monitor. The new craters blasted in the Moon’s surface was obvious and rubble was still in orbit above the surface. It would eventually settle back to the Moon but it gave testimony to the power of the Invader’s weapons. All of the former facilities were obliterated. Salud moved into Lukas’s arms and they shook their head as the Boston accelerated toward Earth. The huge battleship moved into orbit and Lukas said, “Move over the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.” The ship changed course and headed toward the United States.
They arrived above Boston and there was a break in the cloud cover. They stared down at what had once been their home. The city was gone and was replaced by a series of craters that overlapped each other. Lukas heard Salud quietly weeping and he exhaled the breath he had been holding. He looked over his shoulder and said, “Scan for any survivors.”
The battleship moved around the planet and after a complete orbit, Captain Tolbert said, “There is no sign of human life.”
Salud shook her head, “Did any life survive this?”
“It appears that the invaders used their scanners to find every human on the planet and fire at them from space. However, the animals in the wilds appear to have survived. The wild horses and those animals that lived in the deserts and deserted spaces in the northern hemisphere are still there. The animals in Africa and Asia also survived.”
Salud turned around, “I would have thought the radioactivity would have killed them.”
“The invaders did not use any nuclear weapons to destroy the planet. We have a zero reading on radioactivity.”
Salud’s eyes narrowed and Lukas said, “They intend to come back and settle here. They know habitable planets are rare and they chose not to damage Earth where they couldn’t use it.”
“We cannot allow that to happen.”
“It’s not a question of allowing it. It’s whether or not we can stop them from doing it.” Lukas said, “What about the oceans?”
“They destroyed all shipping and that included the submarines but the oceans were not harmed by the bombardment.”
Lukas blew out a breath and said, “Take us back to Eden.” The giant battleship turned and headed toward the gravity limit. Just before they arrived, another battleship appeared in normal space. “I’m so sorry for what happened here.”
Lukas saw the Welken Royal on his monitor, “Thank you for your support in fighting them.”
“I just wish we could have prevented this.”
“You would have died for the effort. Your ships made a huge difference and it was almost enough.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I suspect the same thing you’re doing. We’re rebuilding to take them on when they return. I don’t know if we’ll be successful but we’re making the effort.”
“We are working on that as well. Your technology has made a difference and we’re building ships as fast as possible but it’s going to be difficult to match their numbers.”
“We have some time. I’ve left a ship at their galaxy to report if they try to build another conduit. You’ll need to take it out if they do.”
“I’ve also sent some scouts to watch them. Most of their ships left for another galaxy when they arrived back at that giant ball galaxy.”
“We saw that as well. If we discover anything that will help against them, we’ll let you know about it.”
“I am sorry.”
“I know and thank you for coming to tell us.”
“I left a probe here to let me know if you came back.”
“Good luck and we’ll see you again.”
“I truly hope you do.”
The Welken ship left normal space and the Boston disappeared a moment later.
• • •
Willow emerged into normal space and Chris closed his eyes. Audrey stared at him and waited for him to speak. After ten minutes she said, “Well?”
Chris blew out a breath, opened his eyes and shook his head, “Nothing. I thought I could hear the thoughts of those in the star cluster but I’m evidently not able to hear them this far out. I’m going to have to rethink this.”
“You can’t hear them?”
“No, I can’t Willow.”
“You can’t?”
“NO, I CAN�
��T. Why do you keep asking?”
“Because I can.”
“WHAT?”
“Evidently, the device Piper put in me has a much longer range than your mind.”
Audrey said, “What are you hearing?”
“I have to focus but it’s clear that there is a major war taking place in the cluster. I can hear beings being killed in a massive space battle.”
“Can you take us there?”
“I don’t know how safe it will be to go.”
Chris smiled, “Just get us close and we’ll work our way in slowly.”
“I’m going to skip out at the first sign of trouble.”
“By all means but take us in, Willow.”
Willow activated her star drive and the small ship left normal space. Five minutes later, she emerged into normal space and the monitor showed thousands of ships attacking each other. “Are you covered by the Dark Matter Cloud?”
“I am.”
“Are you getting any indication those ships have detected your presence?”
“None of them appear to be moving toward us.”
“Move in closer and scan those ships.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“Can you get a good scan this far out?”
“Not really.”
“Then move in closer until you can and be ready to get out of here if any of them start moving toward us.” Audrey looked at Chris and worried that he was being reckless. She had fought in space battles and things could happen fast. She suddenly realized her heart was beating fast and she no longer cared about being sent on this voyage. This was going to be exciting and she relished the adrenaline rush. There was nothing like entering a dangerous situation without knowing if you were going to survive. She worried about Chris but she knew Willow would be careful…she hoped.
Willow skipped closer and the ships on the monitor grew much larger. Chris stared at the monitor and the scanner readouts. “One of those fleets is using disruptors.”
“They are.”
“Their force fields appear to be layered.”
“They have four layers with each one more powerful than the other.”
“What about the other fleet, Willow?”
“They are heavily outnumbered and appear to be defending a planet.”
“Where is the planet?”
“It’s behind a force field.”
“I still can’t see it?”
“It’s totally black, Chris but the energy used to power it is visible on the energy band.”
Chris looked to the right and said, “I see it. Willow, the power behind that force field is enormous.”
“The force field around their ships is also several levels of magnitude stronger than any I’ve ever seen.”
“Are they winning?”
“They’re holding their own but ten of the attackers can kill one of their ships. Wait a minute.”
“What?”
“More than ten thousand more ships have emerged from the planet’s force field and the attackers are starting to skip away.”
“How do you think they layer those force fields, Willow?”
“I’ve scanned one of the destroyed warships and it appears they do it by assigning different reactors to each field. The reactors don’t appear to be as strong as ours.”
“So they don’t have a higher level of technology than our ships?”
“No, it appears they don’t.”
“How about the defenders?”
“I’ve scanned one of their destroyed ships and it appears to only have one reactor.”
“ONE?”
“Yes, all that power is coming from one reactor. It even powers their beam weapons.”
“What sort of reading do you get from the reactor? Does it use radioactive materials in in?”
“I’m not getting a reading of radioactivity from the one that has a ruptured containment vessel.” Chris closed his eyes and focused on one of the defender’s ships. He listened to the crew and finally found the one responsible for the reactor. He listened and hoped the being would think about the reactor. “Chris, I think they detect our scan. Some of the ships have turned in our direction.”
“Stop scanning. Don’t leave yet.”
“But…”
Audrey said, “Do as he says, Willow. I don’t think they can see us behind our cloud. Wait!”
Chris listened to the being and it didn’t think about the reactor. “Come on!” Then he heard, “Reactor status?”
“The Dark Energy is holding steady.” Chris saw how the energy was stored in the reactor and then Willow skipped out.
“WILLOW!”
“Chris, they are telepathic and were sensing you. The Cloud won’t hide us from them if they’re moving in on your thoughts.”
Chris blew out a breath and fell back in his chair. Audrey said, “Did you get anything?”
“They’re using Dark Energy in the reactors.”
“What?”
“Dark Energy.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know how they collect it but I saw how they store it in the reactor.”
“Those ships have moved into the void and are trying to follow us.”
“Can they?”
“Not if you don’t use your telepathy.”
Chris thought for a moment and said, “How fast are they, Willow?”
“Chris, don’t make this a race.”
“Can we outrun them?”
“They’re not gaining on us.”
“Are you at full speed?”
“No.”
“I’m going to talk with them.”
Audrey shook her head, “I don’t think that’s wise.”
“It’s worth the risk. They weren’t the attackers.”
“We don’t know if they attacked that other species first.”
“It’s worth the risk. I’m going to see if they’re willing to communicate.” Chris stared at Audrey and after a moment she sighed and shrugged. Chris focused on the grey ships and thought, “We are not here to be a danger to you.” Chris heard nothing but the ships all turned toward them. “I am looking for a way to defend my species and I’m hoping we can come to an agreement where we can possibly help each other.” Again he was greeted with silence and Chris said, “I’ll come back after you’ve had the opportunity to discuss this with your leaders.” Chris leaned back and said, “Willow, get us out of here.” Willow activated three reactors to the thrusters and went to full power. The small Attack Pod removed the cloud around it and blasted away from the pursuing grey ships. They fell behind at an incredible speed and soon disappeared in the distance.
The Leader of the pursuing ships watched the small ship accelerate away at an incredible speed and shook his body. “Return to our space.”
“But that ship knows where we are.”
“And just how do you intend to catch them?”
“They said they’d come back.”
“And we’ll get the opportunity to fail to catch them again. I hope you noticed that that vessel did not appear on our scanners. If they don’t broadcast their thoughts, we’ll never know where they are. Maybe we should talk with them.”
“That is not something you can decide.”
“I don’t want to make this decision. Send the recording of this chase back to the planet and they’ll decide what we are going to do.”
“Yes,Commander.”
• • •
“They’re going to see if their leaders will be willing to communicate.”
Audrey shook her head, “We can’t give them our Dark Matter Technology if they’re an aggressive species.”
“Willow, go back to where those attackers jumped away. See if they left a skip trace.”
“On my way.”
Chapter Ten
“Amanda, I need you and Trevor to start working on weapons we can use against the Invaders.”
“Lukas, we’re about as far as we can go without a breakt
hrough and those can never be planned.”
“No, but they sometimes happen when you’re working hard on what you know. You’ve seen how launching a volley of Dark Matter Rounds into their fleets caused them massive damage. The missiles were never used.”
“They don’t work in the void.”
“Then why are we building them?”
“Because they can make a difference in normal space. Gunny and Kitch used them and killed thousands of their ships.”
“Then those missiles should be stored at the planet and the space on our warships should be used for more DM rounds.” Amanda stared at Lukas and he said, “I’m not criticizing you or Trevor. Perhaps this is a good reason to have defensive satellites above the planet. However, we have to learn from our mistakes and do a better job. You and Trevor are the ones we are counting on to make a difference.”
“We’ll see what we can do.”
“Thanks, Amanda.” Amanda left the office and Lukas saw Salud come in. “Hi, Love. What’s going on?”
“We’ve finally got enough housing for everyone. There’s still a lot of infrastructure to be completed but the end is at last in sight. Why was Amanda here?”
“We have to start developing new weapons to counter the numbers we’re going to have to face.”
“Do you see anything we could do differently?”
“We need to change some things on our battleships but nothing that would make a big difference. The invader will have time to rebuild their fleets so we might be facing twice the number if that other species in M-87 join them.”
“If we don’t stop them there, we’ll eventually be facing them here.”
“I know. I know.”
“This is probably not a good time but I have some news.”
“What is that?”
“We are going to be three.”
“What?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Lukas’ expression changed five times before he jumped out of his chair and rushed over to Salud and took her in his arms. “We’ve must stop them, Lukas! I want our baby to be raised on Earth.”
“I love you so much.”
“And I love you, too.” Lukas held her tightly and swore he would make the future safe for his children.