by Saxon Andrew
“Yes.”
“Are you able to get a transmission out to Fleet?”
“Not with the black hole between us.”
“See if you can get Piper.”
“What do you want, Chris.”
“Can you get Lukas and connect him to me?”
“Why.”
“I intend to stop the destruction of a planet.”
“Stand by.”
“Chris?”
“Lukas, I don’t have much time but I want you to send Chad’s fleet to the coordinates I’m sending you.”
“Why do you want that?”
“A planet has been bombarded and the Attackers are going to start landing operations momentarily. We need to see how we match up to their ships and now would be a good time to do it.”
Lukas looked over his shoulder, “Send them.”
Chris looked at Lance, “How many ships were going to the rescue of their fleet commander.”
“Two hundred.”
“Lukas, tell Chad to send about four hundred of his ships to the second coordinate where they’ll find about two hundred Attacker Ships. Send the rest to the first coordinate. Willow, send them the coordinates.”
“They have them, Chad has confirmed their arrival.”
“Piper, thank you for helping us.”
“I’m glad to do it.”
Loree looked at Chris, “Why are you doing this?”
“For the reason I stated. Most of the Attacker Fleet must have left once the planet was hit. We need to find out how we measure up.”
Loree looked at the huge fires burning on the planet, “There are two answers to every question, Mr. Stone.”
“Oh?”
“A good one and the real one. This reminds me of what happened to Earth. I’d do this simply because of that.”
Chris smiled, “You are wise beyond your years, Admiral.”
“Coming from a ten year old, that’s a great compliment.” The crew laughed and Chris turned red.
• • •
Audrey watched the monitor and shook her head, “How much longer will it take them to arrive?”
Chris smiled, “Patience is a meal best served slowly.”
Thousands of troop carriers were now forming up outside the battleships and it wasn’t going to be long before they entered the planet’s atmosphere. The first group started toward the planet and suddenly all of them exploded. Thousands of battleships appeared in normal space around the Attacker’s Fleet and opened fire with their disruptors. Attacker ships began exploding in a massive wave that ripped through their ranks. Many were able to fire their beams and several battleships were damaged when they were hit by multiple shots. But before any more damage could be done, the overwhelming number of attackers demolished the enemy fleet. Loree looked at Frank, who said, “Their beams are as powerful as our main disruptors, Sir.”
Loree shook her head and saw the thousands of Attack Pods that moved in with Chad’s fleet destroying the troop carriers that tried to run for the planet’s surface. None of them were able to land troops although one did manage to land before it was blasted into rubble.
Chris activated his wrist unit, “Thank you, Admiral.”
“I am thankful we could assist you, Chris.”
“You need to get out of here. I’m sure they sent a message back to their fleets.”
“They’ll probably destroy this planet if we leave.”
“We’re not ready to take them on yet. We still don’t know the magnitude of the forces we’d have to face. We’ve done what we can.”
Chad nodded and said, “Let us know if you need us.”
“Get the recordings back to Fleet to see how strong their weapons are. We’re going to need that information.” Chad nodded and the small display went dark. Chris looked at Loree, “We need to go back to the previous planet and find another ship to follow.”
“I think we should skip out of here and see what my fleet has been able to uncover so far.”
Chris nodded and Loree looked at Emily, “Skip us out to deep space above the galaxy.” Emily turned to her console and the LaGrange entered the void and skipped away at maximum speed.
Audrey looked at Chris, “The ships that were damaged were brought inside another ship’s drive field and towed away.” Chris nodded and looked at the tactical monitor. The microprobe they left behind had thousands of small points of light moving toward the planet. He prayed for the doomed populations still on the planet’s surface. He saw them arrive and then suddenly turn and scatter in thousands of different directions. His eyebrows came together and Audrey said, “Admiral Mitchell is incredible. He had his ships deliberately leave skip traces for them to follow. His fleet is running away from the central black hole and is leading them out into the far side of the galaxy.”
Chris smiled. Finding who killed their ships would take precedence over continuing an attack against a bombed out planet. The planet was given a stay of execution. That was more than he expected.
• • •
“Who attacked our ships?”
“We’ve followed their skip traces for more than forty thousand light years and they all ended at the same place.”
“How may traces were there?”
“About a thousand, Excellency.”
“Our ships were severely outnumbered.”
“It does appear so.”
“Why do you say appeared?”
“If they were able to eliminate their skip trails, we really don’t know how many actually participated in the attack. There could have been many more than that.”
“You make a good point. Do you think they ran toward their origin?”
“I wouldn’t have.”
“So we have no idea who was behind this?”
“No, we don’t.”
“Could it have been the Grey Ships?”
“This is a long way from their planet.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I guess it’s possible but they’ve not left their planet in the past.”
“It may be that they’ve not been attacked in the past and are scouting our forces.”
“That is possible.”
“Recall your ships to the gathering.”
“What about the planet?”
“We’ll worry about that after we eliminate the Grey Ships. Recall your ships!”
Chapter Fourteen
The image of the Andromeda Galaxy was on the scanner monitor and it was beautiful. It made everyone homesick; it looked so much like the Milky Way, only larger. Loree looked at the image on the monitor and turned to Lance, “I want you to freeze that image and set it up for expansion or contraction. Barbie, is your scanner capable of maintaining the details of each star?”
“I can keep the stars in focus but we’ll have to move a lot closer for me to see the planets.”
“That’s ok. How many ships have reported in on planets they’ve uncovered?”
“Eight hundred planets have been found that have ships gathering at the first planet we visited.” Chris whistled at the number. “Are they all located in the same sector of the galaxy?”
“Two of them are further out toward the rim but all the others are within eight hundred light years of each other.”
“Change the color of the stars where those planets are located.” Everyone watched the monitor and started seeing stars changing color to red. After a few moments, the image of Andromeda showed the eight hundred stars. “What can you tell me about the two planets out toward the edge of the galaxy?”
“Both of them have warships around them but there is only one city on the planet that appears to be near a mining operation. The two Commanders that found them say that they are probably the source of a rare mineral the Attackers need. The ships are there to protect the mines.”
Loree nodded and said, “Change their color to violet.” The two stars immediately changed color. “So the real center of their civilizations is located in that quadra
nt where the majority of the red stars are located?”
“That is correct.”
“Bring the view in closer.” The area began to grow larger until it filled the monitor. “Did any of these planets have something about them out of the ordinary?”
“Ninety six of them have large concentrations of warships in orbit above them. They appear to be the planets where the majority of their shipbuilding is taking place. One of them in particular is heavily overpopulated.”
“What kind of ships are they building?”
“Mainly warships and armed transports. The Warships are the same kind you attacked at the planet they invaded and the ones that Chris recorded at the planet of the Grey Ships.”
Loree looked at Chris and Audrey, “That might be their home world.”
“There are thirty eight more planets building that particular warship but none of them are close to the population density of that planet.”
“Change all the planets that are building those ships to green.” The image changed again and Loree said, “Notice that all of them are centered around that massive planet. That suggests that they were conquered by the largest. Barbie, what civilization has the second largest number of ships gathering.”
“Actually, those ships we’ve discussed are the second largest. The largest number of ships come from a group of planets that surround those shipbuilding planets.”
“Change their color to orange.”
The image changed and Chris shook his head, “Barbie, how many planets is that?”
“Five hundred.”
“How many planets does the first civilization have control over?” The group of red stars grew until they filled the area inside the green stars. Chris looked at Loree, “It appears they are surrounded and we know nothing about the capabilities of the green warships.”
Loree stared at the monitor and said, “Emily, move in close enough to that quadrant where Barbie can show us the planets.” Emily sent the ship into the void and pushed forward on the steering wheel. The LaGrange accelerated and thirty minutes later, Emily moved the ship into normal space. “How far out are we?”
“About two hundred light years.”
“Barbie, I want you to focus on the stars that lie between those two civilizations. I notice that quite a few of them are not showing any color. Try to look at any that might be located in the habitation zone.” The monitor began flashing rapidly and Chris looked at Loree, “Barbie is looking at all of them and will give us a summary when the study is completed.”
“Is each one of those flashes a planet that lies in the habitation zone?
Loree nodded. Chris shook his head and Audrey said, “What are you thinking?”
“The probabilities are high that some of those planets have to be inhabited. If they’re not…”
“Then there must be a reason.”
“The most likely answer would be an intergalactic war. Of course, I might be wrong.”
“I’ve changed two of those stars to green.”
“What about the others?”
“Admiral, it appears most of them have been bombarded from space.”
“Can you tell which civilization they belonged to?”
“Only a few of them but it appears that they are equally divided between the red and green stars.”
Loree looked at Lance, “Contact Commodore Schilling’s squadron and have them assigned to one of those planet to go and take a look around.” Lance turned to his board and began speaking quietly. Loree looked at Chris, “The images we’re seeing out here are two hundred years old. I want to know if those planets are still uninhabited.”
Chris looked at Loree and Audrey, “The green stars are more powerful.” Both of them looked at him and he pointed at the monitor, “Take a look. The red stars are completely surrounded by the green. They were moving in on the reds and winning.”
“Why did they stop fighting?”
Chris looked at Emily, “That is something we need to find out.”
Loree sat back in the command chair, “Why is that?”
“Because the only thing that could make them stop is a force stronger than both of them.”
Loree shook her head, “Barbie, how many different civilizations are represented at the ship gathering?”
“Ten in total; however, the other eight have contributed a small fraction of the green and red fleets.”
“What fraction do they represent?”
“Less than a one hundredth.”
Loree looked at Chris, “The only way any of them could have stopped the fighting is if they had indestructible warships.”
“Even then, that’s highly unlikely they have that or they would have gone on and defeated both of them.”
Chris stared at the monitor and Audrey wondered what he was thinking. She saw his concentration and didn’t want to interrupt him to ask.
“Sir, I have the first reports coming in from Commodore Shilling’s squadron. Those planets are still uninhabited but they’ve recovered from the bombardment two hundred years ago and are all beautiful planets now.”
“Show me.”
Everyone looked at the right hand monitor and began seeing image after image of beautiful blue and green planets begin appearing one after another. Chris sighed and shook his head, “Do you think the billions of beings crowded on that ship building planet might want to live on one of those?”
Frank said, “Why aren’t they?”
Chris continued to stare at the planets as more reports came in, “It’s a neutral zone that no one will violate.”
• • •
Frank shook his head, “But they’re attacking planets outside this quadrant. The planet where we just attacked their ships is far outside this quadrant.”
“Who’s to stop them from violating that zone?”
Chris turned and looked at Loree, “That is the key to understanding what’s going on here.” Everyone looked at each other as planet after beautiful planet rolled across the monitor.
• • •
“Amanda, what can you tell me about the beam that damaged our battleships?”
“Jinks, it’s not nuclear or plasma generated.”
“Then what is it?”
“I haven’t been able to make a determination yet. However, every ship that one of those beams hit has been damaged.”
“What can you tell me about the damage?”
“It blew through the force field and went completely out the other side.”
“Get this out to Admiral Barber now!”
“She’s not where I can reach her.”
“She’s currently holding station above the galaxy. Get it out now!”
• • •
Lance looked up and said, “I have a message from Commodore Ambrose.”
“Put her on the monitor.”
Amanda appeared and said, “Thank God! I’ve done an analysis of the beams being used by the ships you attacked.”
Chris looked at the monitor, “And?”
“Every one of our ships that was hit by one on those beams was damaged. Admiral Mitchell was lucky that most of them weren’t at battle stations when he attacked. The analysis of the recording shows that the enemy ships didn’t have time to bring their weapons online before they were overwhelmed.”
Loree said, “How many of our ships were configured with their most powerful force fields?”
Amanda looked down and then looked up, “None of them were higher than thirty percent; however, those beams blew all the way through and weren’t slowed at all.”
“Thanks, Amanda. We’ve been lucky so far that we’ve been able to take them by surprise.”
“Half of the ships sent to that group of two hundred ships were damaged. They were at battle stations.”
Chris looked at Audrey and then turned back to Amanda, “So whoever shoots first wins.”
“It does appear that is the case.”
“Thanks Amanda.”
“Be careful!”
The monitor went dark and Loree looked at Chris, “What do you think about this?”
“It confirms there is an outside entity that is heavily involved in this.”
Loree started laughing and Chris tilted his head, “What’s so funny?”
“I am beyond amazement at how you make these intuitive leaps. I might figure this out after several hours of reflection but why don’t you save me the effort and tell me how you know this.”
Chris shook twice with a snicker and shook his head, “When have our weapons ever exceeded our ability to stop them?”
“Right now. The Dark Matter Rounds will penetrate our force fields.”
“And where did we get that technology? Did we develop it?”
Loree’s eyes went wide, “YOU’RE RIGHT!”
Lance looked at them and said, “Perhaps I’m not as bright as you two geniuses but I don’t understand.”
Audrey looked at him and said, “Our force field will stop our disruptors which was our strongest weapon. We stole the Dark Matter Technology from the invaders use of the Dark Cloud.”
Lance stared at her and then turned to Loree, “Their force fields won’t stop their beams.”
Loree nodded, “So that means they either stole that technology, or…”
“Someone gave it to them.”
Lance looked at Chris, “What are we going to do about this?”
“I want everything that’s happened downloaded into a datacube.”
Loree shook her head, “If you intend to go anywhere, we’re going with you.”
“No, you’re not, Admiral. I think we’ve completed our mission and we need to see if we can get our reward for it. I will not endanger this ship by allowing you to go with me.”
Loree stared at Chris and after a moment smiled, “It’s been a real pleasure serving with you, Mister Stone. Please feel free to join me in the future.”
Chris smiled, “I’ve heard a lot about you before this mission and I wondered if what I heard was true.” He paused and said, “You are actually even better than I was told you are. I would…suggest that you clear this area of your fleet.”
Loree nodded and looked at Lance stand up and bring the cube to Chris. He looked at Audrey who had stood up and said, “I’ve learned a lot from you, Sir. It’s been a real pleasure.”