by Saxon Andrew
Planet Predators
Lens of Time – Book Two
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Chapter Six • Chapter Seven • Chapter Eight • Chapter Nine • Chapter Ten • Chapter Eleven • Chapter Twelve • Chapter Thirteen • Chapter Fourteen • Chapter Fifteen • Chapter Sixteen • Chapter Seventeen • Chapter Eighteen • Chapter Nineteen
Books by Saxon Andrew
About Saxon Andrew
Introduction
RV looked at Izzy and then said, “Zack, I’m going to start jumping a million years and see what happens to your home. If we find it destroyed after one of our jumps we’ll back out and see what happened.” Zack nodded.
Over the next four days, the three of them watched the Jenze Planet attacked more than thirty times by different ships. Every time the planet managed to survive because of its planetary force field. In ten of the attacks, the field was breeched and some nuclear missiles made it through and though there was damage to some of the cities, the planet still survived. When the Ninja arrived at the light from four million years in the past the planet was destroyed and still burning. Zack stood up and stared at the screen. Arvolo gazed at the dead planet and after a long moment of silence said, “Whoever did this was able to defeat your planetary defenses. I would guess that this is where your, and our, ancestors died. Are you sure you want to see this?”
Zack took a deep breath and nodded, “I’m staggered at the number of times we’ve been attacked. Does this happen to every civilization?”
“We’ve not found any exceptions yet. I’m backing up ten years.”
Izzy looked over at Zack and saw the sorrow written on his face. She reached over and squeezed his hand. Zack looked at her and continued to hold her hand as Arvolo jumped the ship.
Chapter One
“Chris, are you ready to leave?”
“I need to recharge the gravity emitters. We’ve been trialing them so much that the charge is down to sixty percent. They should be up to full charge in another forty five minutes. Have you selected our target planet?”
“Yes, I have. The book of Alliance Maps has the location of the Main Moet Capital with a caution to avoid at all costs. I think we should try that one first and go to the oldest Moet Planet second.”
Chris took his gaze away from his display and looked at Jillian, “I’m not sure that order is best.”
“Why not?”
“If our suspicions are accurate, it may be that the planet with the best opportunity to see what has happened to the Moet is one that may have been destroyed to the point where it would no longer be one of their main planets. I suspect that if the Moet were attacked in the past, the planet that would receive the most damage would no longer be their center of operations.”
Jillian looked in the book and turned several pages. She started reading and after a minute looked up, “The Alliance list a planet out near the edge of the galaxy as Moet. There is a symbol next to it and I looked it up in the back of the book. That symbol indicates the planet has been destroyed.”
“That’s our target.”
“I’ll get to work on the best path to take to view that planet. How far back do you want to see?”
Chris looked off into space and said, “We know the Moet were around at the time of the dinosaurs. Let’s see if we can watch it from fifty million years ago until it was destroyed. That should give us an idea of what we’re up against.”
Jillian entered the data; soon after, an alarm went off on her board, “A galaxy passed through the best possible coordinates about twenty million years ago. We’ll miss about four thousand years but I still like that direction better than the others.”
“I agree. Four thousand years is less than a thousandth of one percent of the history we’ll be surveying. We can always move to another route if something significant happens during that blocked view.”
“I’ve locked it in. We should be able to jump to our start location directly from that planet after we get a reading on its atmosphere.”
“I’m glad George and Meisa developed our navigation systems before they left for Dundee.”
Jillian leaned back and smiled, “It’s not every planet that is named after a honey moon location.”
Chris smiled, “I’ve seen their pictures. That little Australian city is beautiful and I want to visit as soon as things settle down. Have we heard anything on their progress?”
“The initial colony ship landed and the construction of living quarters began immediately. The next two ships delivered the colonists and the massive materials to build the manufacturing facilities for our new ships.”
I understand that three more ship loads were delivered last week and things are shaping up well. I do worry that the Blue Giant Scouts might find them.”
Chris shook his head, “That planet has no sign of ever supporting intelligent life. If it was scouted it would not be a planet they would go visit again.”
“Why do you say that?”
“The Blue Giants would know that a civilization wouldn’t have had enough time to develop and pose a threat since their survey of our galaxy. They’ll go back through all the planets that have intelligent life before they look anywhere else. They’ll find us before they find Dundee.”
“You’re probably right. Now that Dundee is self-sufficient, I understand that three more planets are being settled. We can at least feel better about the survival of our species if we can continue the process.”
“Dundee is the one that we need to get behind. The new ships are going to be built there and that will determine our chances of survival.”
Jillian sighed, “George told Dolly that there’s a huge abundance of raw materials and that more trips weren’t necessary. He doesn’t want one of the ships followed by a Scout.”
“That makes sense.” Chris looked at his board, “The charge is full; we can launch now.”
Jillian punched her board, “Sydney control, we are ready for departure.”
“The pattern is cleared. You may launch in two minutes.”
“I hope you two don’t stay away too long.”
Chris smiled, “We’re going a long time but don’t plan to be gone long, Dolly.”
“Oh, such a wordsmith you are. We’re going to start going after the Blue Giant Scouts shortly and I’d feel better if you were here.”
“I’m sure Admiral Garcia will have them whipped into shape.”
“Jeff is good but, none the less, I’d feel better if you were around once the fighting starts.”
“Dolly, I don’t anticipate this taking more than two weeks. We’ve been able to determine the best route to see our target and we won’t take as long to gather information. We’ve come a long way since our first efforts.”
“Good. I’ll let Jeff know.”
“Behave while we’re gone.”
“Now Chris, you know I never misbehave.”
Jillian started laughing and Chris just shook his head. “We’ll see you soon.”
* * *
Arvolo sat in his command chair and gazed through his reading glasses at the bright display panel on his console. He often regretted not having his vision corrected but just didn’t want any modification made to his body. It was the principle. Everyone should know that the Cuban Body could not be improved upon. He looked down at his big stomach and sighed. Well, not much anyway. Let’s see what they could do to him after his last altercation. Ummm…public intoxication. That one was valid. Inciting a riot? That one shouldn’t stick. He only hit two of
them. The ten others that piled on weren’t his fault. Resisting arrest; I didn’t see the arresting officer’s uniform. There were too many there trying to pile on him and they had blocked his vision.
He continued to read and finally arrived at the bottom of the judicial review and fell back in his chair; restricted to port for sixty days. He slowly shook his head and sighed; no more fun for a while. He looked over at the other chair on the bridge of the Havana and slowly shook his head. I guess Charlie just couldn’t hang anymore. He lifted the printout and read it again, “Charles Swamer has requested reassignment and will no longer be a member of the UE Ship Havana.”
Charles was the third Weapons Officer he had lost in the last ninety days. The big sissies; they just couldn’t keep up. Charlie didn’t have to get mixed up in the fight last night; I had everything under control. Umm…I think I had it under control. Arvolo sighed and guessed it was going to take some time to find another sucker…I mean Weapons Officer for the Havana. The sixty day restriction was going to pass slowly if they couldn’t find someone to replace Charlie. Not only would he be stuck in port but he wouldn’t be able to go out on guard duty. Arvolo reclined his chair, put the icepack back on his black right eye, and fell asleep.
Kenny Anders used his chip and opened the port on the Havana and walked to the Bridge. He found Arvolo sleeping in his command chair and did a double take. How could someone that much over weight get into the service? He shook his head and put his bag of tools down next to his chair. He lay down on the floor and grabbed an electric driver and removed the bottom panel from the weapons console. He took an electrical bonding iron and began melting the connections on the main circuit board. He pulled out the main wiring harness and changed it for another one that was made of clear fiber optic strands. He tossed the old one into his bag and proceeded to make connections.
* * *
Arvolo was dreaming that someone had burned his dinner. It came out of the kitchen and was still smoking. The waiter placed the dish in front of him and the meat was nothing but ash. He looked up at the waiter and saw him holding a blaster. He jerked out of his dream and stumbled up out of his chair.
“Could you hand me that torque wrench?”
Arvolo looked around and smelled something that reminded him of an electrical fire. He was still half asleep and he heard, “It’s next to the bag.”
Arvolo looked down and saw two legs sticking out from the weapons console. He reached down and picked up the torque wrench and put it under the console. A hand reached out, took it, and he heard the sound of bolts being tightened, “Excuse me, but what are you doing?”
Kenny crawled out from under the console and said, “Nothing, I’m done.”
“And you are?”
“Your new Weapons Officer.”
Arvolo looked at the slim athletic man and immediately didn’t like him. No one should be in that good a shape. I’ll bet he even likes broccoli. “May I see your orders?”
“They’re in the bag.”
“Why don’t you stand up and report in the way you were trained?”
Kenny smiled at Arvolo, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think anything was done by the book on this ship.”
Arvolo felt his temperature rise, “Just what makes you say that?”
“I’ve read the Fleet records and reports of the crew’s conduct over the last six months and I couldn’t find any trace of structure or professionalism in those reports. Every protocol was pretty much ignored and seeing you in that Cuban shirt pretty much tells me that you are not currently on duty. I’m not here to change your habits, Sir. I assumed that if everything is going to be informal, I saw no need to follow any formality in reporting. Or am I wrong?”
Arvolo stared at the young man and tried to decide how to respond.
“I could have come in here in a clean, pressed uniform and shouted, ‘Weapons Officer Anders reporting for duty, Sir!’ I suspect interrupting your nap is not acceptable behavior.”
Arvolo winced and felt the pain from the noise shoot through his head still suffering from the hangover from the night before. “No, I think I prefer the informal style more. However, I am your superior officer and I expect you to remember that at all times.”
“I’m reasonably sure you won’t let me forget it….Sir.”
Arvolo tilted his head, “I’ve never kicked my Weapons Officer’s butt on the first day but I’m beginning to think I might change that momentarily.”
Kenny smiled, “Anytime you want to have a go, just let me know however, I did see something in the Fleet reports that you should be aware of.”
“What is that?”
“Admiral Garcia has ordered that the next time there’s another incident out of the Havana that causes the Service embarrassment; the Commander of that ship will be dishonorably discharged from the Fleet.”
Arvolo stared at Kenny and then looked at the printout again detailing Charley’s request for reassignment. “Why are you here? How did you get stuck with me?”
“I actually requested this assignment.”
“Why?”
“I must say that when I first saw you I was amazed that the Fleet would accept someone as….let’s say…big as you are.”
“Are you saying I’m fat!?!”
“I just told you, ‘let’s say big’. Weren’t you listening? Are you unaware of your size?”
“Well, not really. I’m just husky.”
“And Buddha was big boned. However, let’s agree to not play word games. As I was saying, your size surprised me and the fact you’re wearing glasses violates every rule for a ship’s pilot. I determined at that point that I had made a good choice to request this assignment.”
Arvolo just stared at Kenny.
“I went through the Fleet’s tests for all of its Ship’s Commanders and looked for the pilot with the highest flight scores. You are here because of your ability to fly a starship. Anyone else would have been drummed out of the service months ago with the number of times you’ve been put in the brig. I have a wife and daughter and I want to make sure I have a good chance of seeing my daughter grow up. I may not like your style but I know I can’t find a better pilot. I do hope you’ll behave and not force me to go to another ship.”
Arvolo continued to stare at Kenny and after a long moment said, “Rule number one; you can call me whatever you want but you may never say anything bad about Cuba.”
Kenny tilted his head and nodded.
“Rule number two; if my wife ever calls, you haven’t seen me.”
Kenny narrowed his eyes, “Is that a problem?”
“I told her four years ago I was going to the store and I never went back.”
“Has she called?”
“Not yet, but she might miss me one day and call.”
“Captain, I think you’re safe.”
Arvolo looked around and whispered, “You never know.”
Kenny nodded again and when Arvolo turned around he shook his head. Here was a man that had kicked the crap out of six marines, yet he was afraid of a woman. Kenny decided that he had to meet her one day. It was clear Arvolo didn’t share that wish. Well, with only two rules, life should be simple. Kenny would later discover that life was never simple with the large Cuban.
* * *
Jeff pushed his communication panel and saw Bob’s face appear, “Good morning, Sir.”
“Good morning, Admiral Owens. How are the Fleet exercises progressing?”
“They are making great progress, Sir.”
“Bob, drop the Sir. You’re an Admiral just like I am.”
Bob smiled, “No, I have fewer stars.”
Jeff smiled at his old friend, “I want to start combat operations soon and I need you to select a ship to make the initial attack.”
“I think I have just the ship.”
“Which one?”
“The Havana.”
Jeff sighed and Bob interrupted him before he could respond, “I know the history of Captain Arvolo but hi
s ship won the competition.”
“Really?”
“Wasn’t even close; he may have a lot of aggression issues but he is talented.”
Jeff stared at Bob and nodded, “We’ll see how it goes. I think aggression is just what’s called for in this initial confrontation. I’ll let you know when we’re ready.”
Jeff ended the call and smiled. Maybe Anders would make the difference in making the Havana all it was capable of becoming. He was surprised when Kenny had declined an Admiral’s rank in the support section to be a Weapon’s officer. He was forced to approve the assignment to the Havana figuring that the crazy Cuban would get him to reconsider. Why did he select that ship? He made a note to follow up. There must be something about the Cuban he was missing.
* * *
The Moet Prince waited in the reception chamber of the First Master. He had sent the video of the Blue Ships before he arrived and was directed to report for an audience with the Supreme Ruler of the Moet. He thought about the strange ships sharing information about the Blue Ships and declaring that they were not an enemy of his. What a strange thought. He looked up and saw the First Master enter. He stood and lowered his eye stalks.
“Do you believe this information you sent?”
“Yes, I do. I ordered a ship to go and see if the energy trails were still present where they were seen and they are. The trails are massive and number in the millions.”
“I’m ordering an immediate evacuation of our planets. You need to get the planets you’re responsible for organized for the move.” She paused and then said, “I’m concerned about this new civilization that destroyed half your fleet. I’m not comfortable with their sudden development.”
“They said they were not our enemy.”
She tossed two eyestalks back and laughed, “So do they all.”
“Yes, but they could have destroyed my fleet and withheld the video they gave us. That is not normal behavior.”
She shrugged, “Even so, they must be destroyed.”
“I promised to communicate with them before we attacked again.”
“You know that promise is meaningless. Why did you make it?”