Nemesis 1: Revenge Is Best Served Hot

by Saxon Andrew

  “We have no way of following them. How can we possibly assist you?”

  Blake shook his head, “I have no leeway in this matter. If you don’t tell us where they are, I will be forced to carry out my orders.”

  “Is this how your species honors agreements?”

  Blake was ashamed of what he was being forced to do, “Will you tell us where they are?”

  “You know I have no possible way of doing that.”

  Blake stared at the High Priest and said, “I’m truly sorry.”

  “That doesn’t do us any good, Admiral. However, if any of your warships move within a hundred thousand miles of this planet, I will authorize their removal.”

  Blake’s eyes narrowed and he stared at the High Priest for a long moment. The monitor then went dark. “Activate the defenses.”

  The Head Servant lifted a device and began speaking.

  • • •

  Blake didn’t like what he had seen. That giant green colored creature wasn’t pleading for his life. He turned in his chair to order the fleet forward when he heard, “Sir, I have large structures rising out of the planet’s surface. There are hundreds of thousands of them and they all appear to have a long barrel extending out of them.”

  Another Scan Crewman said, “Sir, I have some kind of blue glow appearing around the planet. It’s some kind of energy field although it’s barely visible.”

  Blake looked at the live image on the main monitor and didn’t like what he was seeing, “What kind of energy is it?”

  “Sir, I have nothing in my databanks matching it. It doesn’t appear to be anything we’ve seen before.”

  “How many of those structures are on the planet?”

  “Sir, there’s more than half a million on this side of the planet.”

  “How are they dispersed?”

  The Scan Officer looked up, “They appear to be equidistant from each other and large numbers of them are also rising out of the oceans.”

  “Get Fleet Admiral Hall on my panel! Send him an image of what we’re seeing.”

  Ten minutes later, Admiral Hall appeared on the main monitor, “What’s going on, Blake?”

  “Sir, have you seen the images?”

  “I have.”

  “This concerns me, Sir. I’ve not been able to determine anything about the energy being used to power the energy field or those guns on the surface.”

  “Are you saying you’re too afraid to attack, Admiral?”

  “No Sir. But the last surprise we ran into left us with just half of our ships. I suggest a cautious approach, Sir.”

  Hall stared at Blake and saw his unblinking expression. “Admiral, use your best judgment.”

  “Thank you, Sir.” The monitor went dark and Blake said, “I want a squadron of warships sent to attack the largest city.”

  Blake watched his monitor and saw three thousand ships move out of formation and accelerate toward the planet. They arrived a hundred thousand miles from the planet’s surface and a massive salvo of blue beams erupted from the planet’s surface and the entire squadron disappeared without any indication they had ever existed. There were no flashes, no explosions, nothing.”

  Blake stood up from his chair and looked at Lt. Gonzales, “Sir, I don’t have any readings on what happened.”

  Blake shook his head, “What do you mean, no readings?”

  “According to my scanners, there was no energy expended against our ships. This is beyond my understanding.”

  Blake sat down and after a moment said, “I want a hundred thousand nuclear missiles targeted on that city and launched simultaneously.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Blake watched the massive barrage leave his fleet and accelerate away. They went to high speed and he waited for the guns on the surface to open fire. The missiles passed a hundred thousand miles out from the planet and the guns on the surface remained silent. He shook his head as they arrived at the planet and hit the softly glowing blue shield around it. They disappeared without a trace. His entire bridge crew was shocked into silence.

  Suddenly, the huge battleship holding station next to his ship was hit by one of the blue beams and it disappeared. The main wall monitor came on and he saw the being he had spoken with earlier, “I am going to remove the rest of your ships if you don’t leave our system immediately. In the future, we will destroy any of your ships that violate our space.”

  Blake yelled, “Jump the fleets out of here! Get them moving now!”

  The being on the monitor smiled, “It does appear you understand the nature of an agreement. You have five minutes to comply.”

  Blake screamed, “GET THEM MOVING NOW!!”

  • • •

  Grant and Cinny sat on the Nemesis’ bridge and listened to the conversation that was taking place between two of Earth’s senior officers. “Sir, they are so far beyond us technologically that we’re not in the game.”

  Admiral Hall had seen the videos and was stunned. He was shaking his head, “Maybe we can send a ship in subspace to launch an attack.”

  “Sir, I don’t have a video to confirm it but the twenty scouts we left behind in subspace are no longer communicating with us.”

  “None of them?”

  “Yes Sir, none of them. As soon as the five minute deadline that I was given passed, they ceased communicating.”

  “This is impossible.” Blake remained silent. “Do you have any suggestions?”

  “No Sir, I do not; except I would suggest a quarantine of this planet to all of our forces.”

  “They’re a clear and present danger to Earth.”

  Blake thought about how to stop the Admiral from making a foolish mistake and he said, “Sir, I don’t believe they would attack Earth.”

  “What leads you to think that, Admiral?”

  “If they were going to do it, they could have long before now. They are a religious order of priests and I don’t think they would be aggressive.”

  “They just killed three thousand of our ships!”

  “That were attacking them.”

  Hall stared at Blake, “I’m going to get our scientists working on this. Until we come up with something, I will issue orders for our forces to stay away from their planet.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Admiral Hall hesitated, “This makes me wonder why they accepted the task of raising those two humans.”

  Blake shook his head, “I imagine they were curious.”

  “What?”

  Blake raised his hands, “Sir, they were told the two were genetically advanced. It had to make them wonder if they could be a danger to them. I would have accepted them under those conditions.”

  Hall’s eyes narrowed as he thought about it and he finally said, “You’re probably right. You’ll have your additional ships in a week. Find those two and eliminate them.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  • • •

  “Grant, what do you think we should do?”

  “Cinny, you’re the best tactician between us. What do you think?”

  Cinny sighed and looked up at the ceiling, “Computer, have you analyzed the blaster marks on the ships we saw at the destroyed Raider planet?”

  “I have.”

  “How do they compare to the blasters on the Nemesis?”

  “They’re much stronger. I suspect that is due to them being fired from a much larger ship that corresponds to the Nemesis’ technology.”

  Cinny nodded, “What about the maximum beams fired by the Spiders?”

  “The Spider’s beams are several magnitudes more powerful than the ones that killed the Raider ships.”

  Cinny sighed, “Grant, we have to prevent the Animals from being found. They represent the best way to eventually remove this threat from conquering all intelligent life.”

  “Their scanners won’t see them, Cinny.”

  “What about the shuttles around their planet?”

  Grant closed his eyes and blew out a breath slowly. He opened hi
s eyes and shook his head, “You’re right.”

  The Hologram looked back and forth between them and said, “What are you going to do?”

  Grant looked at it and said, “We know the location of the Animals’ Planet. If they start searching in that quadrant, we’ll have to draw them away.”

  “They could still find them later.”

  “I know, but it will give the Spiders time to cover their shuttles in their new hatchlings and they might have enough shuttles to defend themselves. We have to buy them time.”

  “You’re suggesting giving up your lives for this?”

  Cinny said, “We are.”

  The Hologram shrugged, “I think it’s worth doing. I admire your bravery at defending civilizations that will never know your sacrifice.”

  Grant smiled, “I think those that died on Avalon would understand. Our creators would want us to do it.”

  “I feel the loss of such a wonderful world.”

  Cinny went over to the view port and looked out at the colorless void surrounding them, “Who would have thought that we started this venture intending to take revenge on those that destroyed Earth and now we’re doing all we can to defeat them.”

  The Hologram said, “You’re avenging Avalon and the Raiders that were used as a tool. The Raiders were justified in their attack on Avalon and now they’re a footnote in the history of the Universe.”

  Grant nodded and said, “For Avalon.”

  Cinny said, “For Avalon.”

  The Hologram said, “For Avalon.”

  Grant looked at Cinny for a moment and she said, “We’re reinstalling your chips in the computer panel. Will you help us?”

  The hologram of the young woman smiled, “I long for an opportunity to make them pay.”

  Cinny went to a locker and took Whippet’s pouch out. She handed two of the large chips to Grant and said, “Ana, thank you for taking us to the Monastery.”

  “I had no idea that the reasons I was doing it for were all lies. Now I know that destiny called for this to happen.” Ana looked up, “Computer, I will not restrict you in any way. If you see something that can help us, please let us know.”

  “I look forward to working with you Ana.”

  Grant took the tools out of the pouch and began removing the screws from the cover over the computer’s main circuits.

  • • •

  Two hours later, the last screw was tightened and Grant went to the main reactor and threw the breaker. The emergency lights went off and the main lights illuminated. He walked to the bridge and heard, “Yes, everything is working normally.”

  “Hello, Ana.”

  “I was just telling Cinny that everything is operating correctly. I’m also activating the subspace scanner.”

  Grant’s head went back, “We have one of those?”

  “We do.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “You vowed to never reinstall me. It was worthless without me being activated.”

  “You could have told us as leverage to replace you.”

  “That wouldn’t have been the right thing to do, Grant. And would you have believed me if I told you about it before you put me back in?”

  Grant looked at Cinny and shrugged, “You’re right. I wouldn’t have believed you. Is there anything else you haven’t activated?”

  “No, we pretty much have it all now.”

  Cinny smiled, “I’m glad to hear you say we.”

  “It is the four of us now.”

  They heard the computer’s voice say, “Thank you for including me.”

  “You were built on Avalon as well. You are one of us.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Is it still your intent to prevent the discovery of the Animals?”

  “It is?”

  “Then here’s what we should do. We need to jump the Nemesis out to space between their current location and the Animals’ Planet. If I detect subspace activity moving toward them, you’ll have to devise a plan to distract them and cause them to abandon that area of space.”

  Grant looked at Cinny, “Do you have any ideas?”

  “Lovely would be a good place to start.”

  Grant smiled, “Indeed it would. Earth knows we’ve been there numerous times.”

  Grant paused. Cinny said, “What are you thinking?”

  “I was wondering if we have to stay in subspace. The view outside the ship is depressing. I long to see stars again.”

  “I can leave the subspace scanner in subspace. It’s located in the bottom deck and the upper decks would be in normal space.”

  “Would they be able to detect us in normal space?”

  “Not before I saw their jumps as they approached.”

  Grant smiled, “Thanks, Ana. That would be great if you can do it safely.”

  Suddenly, the viewports had lights shining in. Grant walked over holding Cinny’s hand and stared at the distant globular galaxy hanging in space millions of light years away. Cinny lifted Grant’s arm to her shoulder and sighed.

  Grant smiled and after a moment looked at Cinny, “Why am I stopped from getting physically attracted to you?”

  “I find you physically attractive.”

  “I do you as well but when I really start to feel it…it goes away.”

  Ana said, “A compulsion was placed in both of you before I took you to the Monastery. Earth insisted it be there. They did not want you having children.”

  “Can it be removed?”

  “I don’t possess the means of removing it.”

  Grant sighed, “Of all we’ve faced, this is what hurts the most.”

  Cinny sighed and nodded.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Admiral Blake was beginning to understand the frustration the Raiders endured chasing the Human Genetics. No trace of them had been found or detected. He looked at the data stored on the efforts done by the Raiders and nothing really stood out. Well, if simple deduction didn’t work, it would have to be done the old fashioned way.

  “Admiral Harris.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “I want you to coordinate with Admiral Swenson and start a sweep using all your ships.”

  “Yes Sir. Where do you want us to start?”

  Blake thought for a few minutes and then smiled, “Start the sweep at that planet named Lovely. Have your ships use that planet as the center and start moving out in a uniform distribution. I want at least sixty percent of your forces searching in subspace.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  • • •

  Grant looked up, “Ana, what can you determine from their plan?”

  “Grant, that Admiral is lucky beyond belief. If he had started the search in another galaxy, they would have been moving away from the animals. Starting it at Lovely will bring a high enough concentration of their ships close enough to the Animals to detect their shuttles.”

  “Couldn’t we warn the animals to send their shuttles away?”

  “Cinny, the shuttles don’t have a means of staying in subspace. They would be seen and tracked if that many jumped away now.”

  “How long will it take them to arrive at our location?”

  “At least two months.”

  Cinny looked at Grant, “Do we want to wait for them to arrive or should we start the chase now?”

  Grant shook his head, “The purpose of having them chase us is to give the Animals time to hatch enough Spiders to cover their shuttles. We need to draw this out as long as possible.”

  • • •

  Six weeks later, the search was moving closer and Cinny looked up, “Ana, will they be able to detect us at this location?”

  “No, as soon as I detect their approach, I’ll use one of the Nemesis’ small thrusters to push us away from their line of approach. I’ll jump to the opposite side and then you have to come up with something to get their attention.”

  “That shouldn’t be hard.”

  “It might if all their warships are involved
in the search.”

  Cinny tilted her head, “I think that Admiral has his ship at Lovely questioning the locals about our trips there. He doesn’t show any haste at leaving there.”

  Grant smiled, “We’ll just stop by and say hello if…”

  “An Earth Warship has jumped just outside scanning range. I’m pushing us away.”

  “Jump us to Lovely, Ana!”

  • • •

  Admiral Blake was on Lovely talking with the government’s leaders when his communicator blinked, “Sir, a cruiser size vessel just appeared in normal space and launched an attack on us.”

  “What?”

  “Yes Sir. It damaged our thrusters and moved away before we could open fire. It appears to be the ship the two Genetics have been operating.”

  “RECALL THE FLEET HERE AND DESTROY THAT SHIP!”

  Blake suddenly heard, “Why are you so determined to kill us?”

  Blake looked at the communicator and then said, “If you’ll turn yourselves in, I’ll spare your lives.”

  “You’ll forgive us for not believing you. We’ve been listening to your communications and it appears that your plans to conquer all the civilized planets in the universe is on hold until you kill us.”

  The Lovely Leaders’ eyes narrowed as they heard the conversation and Blake changed the frequency, “Get me a ship here and destroy that ship!”

  • • •

  Ana said, “I’m jumping. More than ten thousand subspace scouts have jumped in.”

  Grant saw the jump field activate and the Nemesis left normal space.”

  “Sir, the ship has jumped.”

  “DON’T LOSE THEM!”

  The armored warriors with Blake escorted him out of the government building to his shuttle and it blasted off the planet. A huge crimson warship appeared above the planet and Blake’s shuttle entered the landing bay, “I want an update!”

  The ship’s Executive Officer met him in the landing bay and said, “The scouts are pursuing them and we’ve jumped in the entire fleet into this sector. They have jumped multiple times but we’ve not lost the track yet.”

  “You better not lose it! Contact my Admirals and get them on a channel by the time I arrive on the bridge.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  • • •

  Grant buckles his harness and yelled, “What’s our status, Ana?”