by Saxon Andrew
“I’m not sure. They just, I don’t know, seemed to be telling the truth.”
“Son, you have so much to learn.”
“You must be patient with me, Mother.”
She looked at him, “What would you do if you had to make a decision about them?”
“I’d just leave them alone.”
“Why?”
“If the Blue Ships are really searching for them, they will be found and destroyed. We don’t need to lose any more ships trying to do it ourselves.”
She thought about the idea and gave her affirmation, “You may not need as much experience as I thought. That is a good idea and we will not go back. Now notify all the Family Masters and get the planets organized for evacuation. Have you determined which of your citizens will be left behind?”
“The standings are always up for public viewing.”
“Good.”
“They’re coming back sooner than they ever have, Mother.”
“You can’t blame them. I’d have been here long ago if I was in their position.”
“Are the evacuation planets still available?”
“Most of the structures have fallen into ruin but they can be rebuilt quickly enough.”
“Why don’t we just stay there instead of coming back here to face these invasions?”
“It’s more dangerous there than here. We’re there for so short a time that we’re not usually discovered by the really dangerous Killers. Let’s hope our luck holds out and we can get in and get back here after the Blue Ships leave.”
“Thank you for your Wisdom, Mother.”
“That’s what I’m here to provide, Son.”
Chapter Two
“Jillian, I’m activating the emitters.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Chris extended the fields and entered the data collected from the scan of the dead planet’s atmosphere. The fields expanded at light speed and after ten minutes an alarm sounded. Chris stopped the expansion and moved the ship towards the location of the strongest signal. He focused in on the signal and a planet appeared on his display. Chris was stunned. There were thousands of Moet ships surrounding the planet. Jillian came in smelling of a shower and Chris leaned back as she kissed him. She looked over his shoulder and said, “Oh my! That planet must be one of their major commerce centers.”
“I think you’re right. According to my computer only about a fifth of those ships are warships. This planet was thriving fifty million years ago.”
“Take us closer to the planet.”
The planet grew quickly on the display and they saw huge cities on the surface. “Chris, there was no evidence of cities on that planet when we scanned it.”
“Something must have happened a long time ago for all the evidence to disappear. You’re the Egyptologist. How long would it take for climate alone to erase the evidence of a city that size?”
“Climate alone couldn’t do it. Those buildings are tall and there would be evidence of them millions of years after they were built. Something radical had to happen for them to completely disappear.”
“Well, I think it’s safe to say that the Moet Civilization was flourishing at this particular moment in time. There’s ships coming and going and there must be other planets trading with this one.” Chris reached forward and adjusted his board. “Alright, I’ve locked this line in and I’m going to start jumping forward until we see something different.”
“How far are you going to jump?”
“I think a million years for each jump. If something happens we’ll jump back out.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
“They jumped three times and saw no real difference in the planet. The numbers of ships changed slightly but everything else looked normal. On the fourth jump they saw many of the cities had been hit with nuclear blasts, “We need to back up and see what happened.”
Chris jumped back five hundred thousand years and the city was back to normal. “I’m going to start jumping at ten thousand year intervals and set the computer to stop us when it detects radiation on the surface.”
“You’re the boss.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
Jillian popped him on the back of his head with her hand and he started the jumps. On the forty third jump they stopped and saw huge areas of devastation on the planet. “Chris, that must have happened recently.”
“Judging from the radiation level it should have happened within the last hundred years. I’m backing out a hundred years and then I’ll start jumping in five year increments.”
Chris kept his hand on the jump board and watched his display. After eight jumps he punched the stop pad. They saw cities burning. “I’m backing out a month and start moving forward at high speed.”
Jillian watched closely as they moved forward in time. Chris had backed the view up and suddenly he slowed down. Hundreds of ships were moving towards the planet. Chris, those ships look familiar.”
“They’re Jenze.”
“You’re right. They’re the same color as the one destroyed on Earth just before the asteroid impact.”
They watched as the Jenze fleet attacked the ships at the planet and destroyed them all. The ships then moved in orbit around the planet and dropped nuclear bombs on most of the population centers. The devastation was horrific. Millions of Moet were killed in the nuclear fires scorching the planet’s surface. Soon the atmosphere was full of dark clouds of smoke that rose from the blasts and fanned out over huge areas. The Jenze ships stayed in orbit for ten more hours and then turned and left the planet.
“Chris, this is terrible. The Moet were right to fear the Jenze.”
“We need to move forward and see if this is an isolated event or part of a much larger destruction.”
“How will you be able to tell?”
“If no ships come to assist the planet then that would indicate that other planets have been attacked along with this one.” The view moved into high speed and no ships appeared.
“How long has it been?”
“More than a week.”
“What do we do now?”
“We’ll continue jumping forward in million year increments and see what happens.”
They jumped a million years and the planet was once more a thriving world with thousands of ships around it. They continued jumping and after eight more jumps the world was destroyed again. They repeated the process and watched another fleet moving in on the planet.
“Those are not Jenze ships.”
“No, they aren’t.”
“Where do you think they came from?”
“I have no idea but we know what’s going to happen. Let’s continue jumping forward.”
They jumped forward and watched the planet destroyed six more times until they arrived at light from two million years from the present. Then they saw that no life remained on the planet and all the huge cities were blasted and burned into rubble. They jumped back and moved forward and found a huge Blue Ship moving in on the planet. “Chris, move the view in closer to the planet.”
The planet grew in the display and Jillian pointed at the largest city, “There’s not enough Moet.”
“What do you mean?”
“The cities have always been crowded with large masses of Moet moving around. There are less than a third of those normally seen.”
“I’m backing out a year to see what caused the rapid loss of population.” They broke back into normal space and saw ten giant ships above the planet receiving thousands of shuttles. “They’re moving their population.”
“Yes they are but not all of them. They’ve left enough behind so that the Blue Ships will think they’ve destroyed them all.”
“They’re not fighting any more. They’re running.”
Jillian nodded, “They’ve left enough population and ships to deceive the Blue Giants. The ones left behind have been given a death sentence. It appears the Blue Giants leave no survivors.”
Chris tho
ught a moment, took a deep breath, and blew it out slowly, “They must have been warned of the coming attack and decided that the only way to survive was to run. I think we now know why this planet is still dead in our time. Let’s go see what happens when the Blue Ship attacks.”
Chris and Jillian watched as the Giant Blue Ship arrived in orbit and began firing hundred of beams at the planet’s surface, blasting everything into huge burning mounds of rubble. The twenty mile wide beam was swept over the huge cities like a broom sweeping a dirty floor. The beam swept across the city and was swept back to ensure everything was destroyed. The tall buildings had exploded and then melted. It made an orbit around the planet and hit everything including forests that had no population. Nothing was left behind for anyone to use for rebuilding. Once the orbit was complete the giant ship must have scanned the surface for anything it missed and began another orbit hitting those areas on the surface. Nothing was left alive on any of the land masses and everything was burning.
“This must be after the Blue Ships completed the conquest of their galaxy.”
“I’m not sure how you arrived at that conclusion, Chris.”
“We know they come from the Andromeda Galaxy and that we are the closest galaxy to them in the Virgo Cluster. It appears they are going to insure their safety by destroying any civilization that could one day come and place them in danger. If they were still attacking civilizations in their own galaxy, they wouldn’t come here until they handled that issue.”
“Are you saying they have killed every other civilization in their galaxy?”
“I’m reasonably certain they didn’t learn to clean all life off a planet here. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on them being the only civilization in Andromeda.”
“Maybe there are population pressures that brought them here.”
“This was two million years ago and they didn’t stay. They came, they sought, and they killed. Now they’re coming back to remove any life form that has evolved intelligence since their last visit. Humans are an example of what they’re coming to destroy. We were barely walking upright two million years ago. I also suspect the Blue Giants came back during the last two million years, but we wouldn’t be able to see that because this planet was burned down to the bedrock and wasn’t resettled by the Moet.”
“You believe that because of the Moet’s current level of development?”
“Exactly. I think I’m also coming around to George’s way of thinking.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
Chris stood up and walked over to the view port and looked out at the stars glowing brightly in the Milky Way. He took a deep breath and looked at Jillian, “We’ve seen that Moet Planet destroyed eight times over the last forty five million years and every attack was by a different conqueror. Now the current Conqueror de jour is the Blue Giants. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they weren’t the victim of an attack in their past as well. It appears that every civilization is a predator that kills every other civilization it encounters. They do it to prevent a future attack and make sure their safety is guaranteed. I was naive to think the Moet would keep their promise and communicate before they attacked us again. There is no honor with a predator, only a prey.”
“Then why haven’t they come back?”
Chris looked up at the display and rewound the recording. Jillian followed his gaze. She saw the ten huge ships above the Moet planet, “They’re evacuating.”
“Giving them that recording buys us more time. Now we just have to remain hidden from the Blue Giant Scouts.”
“We haven’t been gone long. Do you want to go take a look at one of the Moet’s planets and see if what we suspect is actually happening?”
“That’s a good idea. Pick one that we can view more than a light week away.”
Jillian opened the Alliance Map Book and began turning pages.
* * *
Arvolo and Kenny were in a bar in New York celebrating their success in the Fleet Competitions. Arvolo had his travel restrictions removed and he insisted they get out on the town to have a drink. “RV, you know you can’t get in trouble.”
“Hey, hey, I’m the picture of good behavior. I will not fight this night. Peace is my first name.”
Kenny saw him smile at his rhyme and had begrudgingly agreed to go. They arrived and to Kenny’s relief, everything appeared to be going well. Arvolo was nothing but smiles and had bought the whole bar a drink. He sat at the table and looked at Kenny, “I’ve been meaning to ask you what you were doing to your weapons console the day you arrived.”
“And I’ve been meaning to ask why you haven’t lost any weight.”
Arvolo sighed, “I’m lazy and weak. That’s a terrible combination, especially when it comes to food. Plantains are my undoing.”
Kenny started to respond but saw five Marines walk up behind Arvolo. Arvolo saw his expression and turned to see the five approaching, “Hey guys, I’m not able to play tonight. I’ve been put on notice that I’m no longer allowed to fight.”
A Marine Corporal tilted his head and said to the other four, “Oh, the fatty can’t play. We owe you for what you did to us last time. We hope you do get kicked out of the service.”
Arvolo was ready to go but restrained himself, “I’m not kidding. I’ve been punished for that encounter and Fleet does not approve of what we did.”
Kenny stood up and stepped away from the table and went and stood by the bar. Arvolo saw him move and knew he was on his own. He slowly shook his head and regretted what was about to happen but knew there was no escape as three more Marines joined the five.
Kenny said, “What, five aren’t enough?”
“You stay out of this flyboy. This is between the fat man and us.”
Arvolo said, “Now that hurts. I’m not fat; I’m husky.”
Kenny leaned back against the bar, shrugged, and ordered a beer.
The Corporal assumed a fighting stance and threw a kick at Arvolo. Kenny had wondered how it was possible for someone RV’s size to have fought six marines but he found out quickly that although he was big, he was faster than a cat.
Arvolo came out of his chair, grabbed the Corporal’s leg, and lifted it as he hit the Corporal with a fist between his legs. The Corporal hit the floor and stayed there. The other seven stormed in and bodies started flying. One of the Marines was thrown up against the bar next to Kenny and he handed the marine his glass of beer, “Hold this.”
The Marine took it before he could think and Kenny bent his arm and hit him on the forehead with the back of his hand. He took his drink out of the Marine’s hand as he fell to the floor and didn’t move.”
Another Marine was thrown on the floor next to the bar and Kenny looked around and hit him on top of his head with an elbow as he started to get up. Kenny looked around again and whistled as he moved further down the bar away from the two unconscious Marines. One of the Marines saw what Kenny did and came over and threw a punch at him. Kenny dodged the punch while taking a drink from his glass and threw a quick left handed punch to the Marine’s solar plexus and doubled him over. Kenny looked around and brought his knee up and flipped the puncher onto his back. Kenny saw the bartender staring at him and shrugged, “He slipped.”
That’s when the Fleet Patrol arrived and began stunning the participants in the fight. One of them approached Kenny and he took a card out and showed it to the officer. He spoke to the officer for a moment and the Officer saluted and turned away. Kenny saw the bartender staring at him again and he smiled, “I have a get out of jail free card. I’m a huge monopoly fan.”
Kenny looked around and saw that four of the other Marines didn’t need stunning. Arvolo had done quite well in the skirmish. He watched as the Patrol removed the stunned or unconscious fighters. Kenny turned and said, “How much damage?”
“Looks like two thousand.”
“If I pay you four will you not press charges?”
“Deal.”
“Put it on this card.�
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The bartender took the card and looked up at Kenny. He handed the card back and Kenny saw he was frightened, “I insist you take the payment. You have nothing to worry about, I promise.”
The bartender ran the card and watched as the slim officer left. He shook his head slowly and now had a story to tell the regulars they would not believe.
* * *
The night duty Office at the Military holding cell looked up and saw a fully armed and armored Alpha Agent enter. He saw the Agent was a Colonel and he snapped to attention, “Sir, how can I help you, Sir.”
The Agent had his full faceplate down and he said through his armor’s speaker, “You are holding a Fleet Captain with the last name Arvolo. I am taking him with me and you will remove any record of him ever being here. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Take me to him.”
The Marine Captain opened the door to the holding block and preceded the Alpha down the hall. He stopped in front of the cell where Arvolo was sitting on a stool rubbing his head where a bruise had swollen. “Open the door.”
RV looked around and worried that the Alpha had come to court marshal him out of the Navy. He slowly stood and took a deep breath. Then he heard the Alpha say to the Captain, “Leave us.” The Captain turned and went up the hall.
The Alpha went to the cell the eight Marines were being held and looked in at them. Arvolo saw they were frightened. “I have a recording of the fight you morons started tonight and you have placed a top secret mission in jeopardy with your outrageous behavior. This Sailor is involved in an exercise of critical importance and your stupidity at getting him arrested tonight should be enough to drum you out of the service. If you mention him to anyone, you will be in Leavenworth for the rest of your miserable lives. Nod if you understand.”
The Marines began nodding so hard Arvolo thought they were going to get neck injuries. The Alpha turned and took Arvolo by the arm and escorted him up the hall and out of the building.
Arvolo walked quickly trying to keep up with the Alpha and said, “I guess I’m out of the Service.”