by Saxon Andrew
“That’s outside our star system.”
“Yes it is, Great Grengen. This attack had to be planned close to a year ago to have time to build the ship to carry it out and launch it from far enough away to not be detected. I suspect the ship that launched it also had the coating used on the small ship that carried out the attack.”
“Is there any way to prevent this from happening again?”
“Great Grengen, the attacker evidently landed on the rear of a transport and rode it in to the planet. We would have detected it with our overlapped scanner fields but for that tactic. We will need to scan the hulls of every transport coming to the Main Planet in the future to prevent this happening again. This tactic would only work once.”
The Great Grengen slammed his console and pressed another button, “Did you expect this!?!”
“No, Great Grengen. I expected that threat in the spiral galaxy to do this and I never considered that one of the four former Slave Species to be able to do this.”
“Well, I owe you my life anyway. Except for your warning, I would be dead with the four Councilors that died in the attack. You will now assume the role of the Military Councilor and your former responsibilities will be assigned to one of the new Councilors chosen to replace those that died in the blast.”‘
The Grengen was shocked. The Military Councilor was the highest ranking Councilor with only the Great Grengen having a superior position. “Great Grengen, I am the newest member of the Council and I think the others with more experience will harbor some resentment about my having this position.”
“If they do, have them executed, you now have the authority and position to do it if you aren’t given their full support. You are the only one with enough foresight to make me feel safe. Now go and make the ones that did this regret it!”
“Yes, Great Grengen. With your approval, would it be possible to place my Brother as Second-in-Command of our fleets.”
“Does he have the qualifications to do it?”
“He does. He’ll not hesitate to tell me where I’m making a mistake.”
“Done! What else?”
“My father has been working closely with me on developing the new double-force fields. Could he be assigned to work with the new Councilor that will replace me?”
“He will be the new Councilor responsible for developing our Technology. I want constant updates on what you’re doing!”
“Yes, Great Grengen.”
The monitor went dark and he heard in his ear, “Well just look at you!”
“I need your help in developing a plan to make the Spearan pay for their actions.”
“Getting to them will pose a problem. They’ll detect our warships long before they can get into striking range.”
“Did we get a sample of the coating used by that ship that destroyed the chamber?”
“I’ll check. What are you thinking?”
“Two can play at the same game. Find out and let me know.”
“If the four former Slave Species unite…”
“I know. We have to be careful not to scare them too much.”
“Are we going to start preparing the colonists?”
“If we send a colony vessel into that Spiral Galaxy, what do you think will happen?”
“The warships will be ignored and it will be the prime target.”
“I’m not willing to send a hundred million of my people into that danger. At least not yet.”
“You may not have a choice.” The Grengen could only nod.
Chapter Thirteen
“I was really hoping that the Flashers would be delayed while they worked on that double-force field. This could force them to start moving to our space before we’re ready to take them on.”
“But Essay, we’re going to have weapons more than twice as powerful as the ones we used previously used against their ships.” Erica responded.
Essay shook his head as he looked at Erica, “It’s like when the Azura went into the Carand Galaxy. They had the most powerful battleships we’ve ever seen until that point and were as large a small moon. Even the Flasher Warships aren’t a lot bigger; and what happened? The Carand ripped them a new backside. The Azura were outnumbered by millions of warships and they were overwhelmed; that is the identical situation we’re facing with the Flashers. They could overwhelm our forces with their massive fleets and we’d reveal to them all of our technology.”
Erica stared at him in silence for a moment and then Kamela said, “But like that new Councilor said, we could make sure no colony ship survived the trip.”
Essay sighed, “Kamela, it may just come to that but we will reveal our weapons to the Flashers if we destroy one of them and they could start developing a counter to the missiles.” Kamela shrugged and then nodded.
The wall speaker activated and they heard, “So we need to come up with a way to delay the Flashers from starting their colonization efforts or prevent them from feeling too much pressure to start fleeing.”
“What are you saying, Poul?” Kamela asked.
“I’m getting better at hearing side thoughts. I saw in that new Councilor’s mind an image of the fleet of Colony Ships hanging in space in orbit outside one of their industrial planets. It’s not easy to colonize if you don’t have the ships to do it.”
“Poul, you are a genius!”
“Well, thank you, Essay. Uhhhh…what am I a genius about?”
“You were suggesting we destroy those colony ships weren’t you?”
“Yes, but that’s not genius material, anyone could see that.”
“Well, slowing down the Four Slave Species attacks on the Flashers is not something that’s immediately seen.”
“Ok, you’re right, Essay, I’m a freaking genius.”
“Just how are we going to destroy those colony ships?”
“Kamela, we’re going to have to go and bring the forces we need to make it happen. I’d much rather start this war in the Flasher’s territory than in our own. However, we won’t take them out until there is a real threat of the Flashers using them. By the way, Poul, how many colony ships do they have?”
“More than two. That’s all I saw in the Councilor’s mind.”
“Do you know where they’re located?”
“No.”
Essay rolled his eyes as Kamela smiled, “I suspect it is at that planet where they’re working on the new force field. We’ll just wait until someone contacts the new Councilor or his father and get a line on the communication.”
“That could take a long time.”
“Not really, Erica. The Councilor is being replaced by his Father and, if his father is at that planet, he will be notified of his promotion. If he’s not there, he will be contacting the ones working on the force field that he is now in command. It should happen pretty quickly.”
“She’s the real genius here!”
“Why do you say that, Poul?”
“The Father just sent a communication to a planet telling them to contact him on any future issues, Essay. I’ve got the line locked in my data banks.”
“Well, let’s go take a look.” The Prophet’s Eyes accelerated away from the Flasher’s Main Governing Planet and flew across the galaxy at high speed.
Fifteen minutes later, Erica said, “Oh my great cousin’s flat bottom.”
Poul said, “Erica, you come up with the most outlandish sayings, Erica. Flat Bottom?”
“He had a flat bottomed boat he used to fish in shallow water.”
“Oh, I guess it makes sense now.”
“You should have seen it, Poul. It had a small tavern on it and an outdoor grill. I can’t tell you how many parties we had on it.”
“Wait a minute…you don’t have an uncle.”
Erica smiled, “Had you going didn’t I?”
Essay smiled, “She was talking about my Uncle Ben’s boat, Poul. He is her uncle now by marriage.”
“Essay, is he the one that’s married to the former Senior Fleet Admiral?�
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“Yes, they moved to the colonies in the second wave.”
“Oh, well anyway, there are more than two colony ships.” The Prophet’s Eyes was holding position outside a giant formation of giant globular shaped starships. There were more than six thousands of them and all of them were more than double the size of the Flasher Warships. “And it does appear each of those ships probably can carry a hundred million colonists.”
“They only have a token guard around them.”
“If you call twelve Flasher Warships a token guard, you’re right Erica. Let’s see if we can get a closer look.” Kamela said sarcastically.
Suddenly, Penny started knocking on the deck and Poul activated the thrusters and took off at high speed. A minute later, a formation of a thousand Flasher Warships flew out of one of the giant Colony Ship’s landing bays and flew at high speed to the Prophet’s Eyes’ former location. Essay stared at the giant Warships gathering and heard Poul say, “I have to admit that I was skeptical of your orders to run when that disk started knocking but I am now a believer. How were they able to detect us?”
Erica sighed, “The field used in the Carand Galaxy is surrounding the ships. It appears the Flashers have modified it to where it can detect surges in dark energy.”
“That is not good!”
“No, it’s not, Poul. I’m going to set my alarms to go off if my scanners detect it in the future. They know something set it off but I suspect they might believe it was a false alarm.”
Kamela’s eyes were narrow and she said, “It appears you’re right, Erica. They’re moving back to the colony vessel; they must get occasional false alarms from sudden increases in Dark Energy. The Leader of those warships is now telling the field operators to set the sensitivity higher.”
Erica sighed, “We’d probably still set them off even with the increased sensitivity. We need to take this into consideration in any future plans we make.”
“Essay, do you think all those Colony Ships have warships inside them?” Poul asked.
Essay looked at Kamela, “What do you sense?”
“No, only six vessels on the outer edges of the formation have them.”
“You know what this means.” Everyone looked at the wall speaker. “I suspect the fields around the Ritual Galaxy’s black hole now has this new field around it as well.”
Essay closed his eyes and fell back in his chair, “We have to come here through other space instead from now on instead of taking the short route through the black holes. It will take our warships several weeks to make the voyage.”
“Yep, or we’ll risk giving away our use of Dark Energy Technology to the Flashers. Our warships aren’t as fast as I am,” Poul said smugly.
“Poul, take us to the Ritual Galaxy.”
“Why?”
“I want to see why none of the participants in this war have tried to colonize it before we start back.”
“I can see two possible reasons, Essay.”
“And they are?”
“Either there are no habitable planets in that galaxy, which is highly unlikely.”
“Or?”
“The meanest badass civilization in this section of the universe prevents it.”
“But the Flashers conducted the training of their pilots in it,” Erica interjected.
Essay shook his head, “Erica, the Flashers built giant facilities outside that galaxy to service and repair their ships. None of them actually landed on a planet there and the recording of the Ritual showed that all of the combatants did not go near a star system. They fought each other in open space between the stars.”
Erica lowered her eyebrows and pursed her lips, “Are you suggesting it’s ok to fly around in that galaxy but not land on a planet? That sounds crazy.”
“It’s just a possibility but it fits with the observed evidence. There may be something else going on that we’re missing and I want to go take a look there before we head back to the Admiralty.”
“So we’re not going to see the fifth galaxy?”
“No, Kamela. That will have to wait, unless you see something I’m missing.”
“No, I can’t think of another pressing reason to go there at the moment.”
The sound of the stardrive filled the bridge and Essay leaned back in his chair, “Keep your armor on and activated until we leave that galaxy.”
• • •
The Prophet’s Eyes was a million miles out from an inhabited planet and Erica was feeding images to the main monitor. This was the sixth civilized planet they had found and all of them shared a commonality that was unnerving. None of them had warships or planetary defenses on them. The worlds all appeared to live in peace and harmony and it was clear that all of them traded with the others. The Prophet’s Eyes had not been challenged at any of the planets it had previously found. “This doesn’t make sense.” Essay glanced at Erica and nodded.
“From what I can hear of the thoughts of those on the planets we’ve seen, they remind me very much of my home world,” Kamela said.
“Are they telepathic like the Kindred?”
Kamela shook her head, “No, they are not. But they are peaceful in their nature and violence does not exist in their societies.”
“My view of the universe is that there are predator civilizations everywhere. This galaxy goes against that view and suggests that I’m wrong.”
“We’re missing something, Essay?”
“Why do you say that, Poul?”
“Because the Flashers have their picture under Predator Civilization in the dictionary and they come here to train their pilots. These societies are like putting a fresh piece of steak in front of a pit bull, the Flashers couldn’t resist these easy pickings. Their planets are heavily over populated and they could take these planets with no resistance.”
“Unless there is something here stopping them.”
“Right, Kamela. Do you sense the presence of something we’re not seeing?” Essay asked.
“I do not.”
Essay stared at the monitor and looked at the wall speaker, “Poul, shut down our force field and deactivate all our weapons.”
“What are you planning, Essay?”
“Poul, I want you to start slowly moving toward that planet and I do mean slowly.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Erica, send a communication to the Admiralty of what we’ve found along with a suggestion to come and destroy those colony ships.”
“Essay! Is this a good idea?”
“Erica, we need to find out what’s going on here. Do as I order now.”
Erica began pressing buttons and in a few minutes she said, “I have the data ready to send.”
Suddenly, all of them heard a loud thought, “YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO SEND THE INFORMATION!!”
Everyone froze and looked at each other. The voice seemed to fill the air and Essay held up his hand stopping Erica from sending the data. “Why do you not want us to send the data?”
“WE DO NOT ALLOW INFORMATION TO BE TRANSMITTED THAT COULD ENDANGER OUR CITIZENS!”
Essay looked at Erica and Kamela and both of them shook their heads. Neither of them detected anything around the ship. Suddenly, Poul said where they could hear, “I see you’re much more advanced than I am.”
“IT IS YOUR PRESENCE THAT HAS ALLOWED YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS TO LIVE. YOU HAVE VIOLATED QUARANTENED SPACE NUMEROUS TIMES SINCE YOU ARRIVED BUT WE’VE WITHHELD OUR ATTACK.”
“We viewed those planets not because we wish to harm those under your protection. We are curious about how peace can be maintained throughout this galaxy. We never seen a galaxy like this one. What is the closest distance you allow anyone to come to your protected space?”
“ONE LIGHT YEAR!”
“We humbly apologize for our intrusion into your territory. We will leave now and not make a further mistake.”
“WHY ARE YOU HERE?”
Essay quickly said, “Open your databanks, Poul.”
“I’ve opened my data for you to see.” Erica, Kamela and Essay jerked as the bridge was filled with a purple light. Essay quickly looked at Penny and saw she was up against Erica’s boot but she appeared to be relaxed.
“I SEE YOU HAVE ONE OF THE GRIFFETS ON YOUR VESSEL.”
Poul said, “Griffets?”
“THE BEINGS THAT LIVE IN OPEN SPACE. THAT HAS ALSO CAUSED SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR PRESENCE AND HAS DELAYED MY RESPONSE TO YOUR VIOLATIONS.”
“We call the Griffet Penny and she has chosen to join our family.”
“SHE HAS INFORMED US THAT SHE CHOOSES TO BE WITH YOU. THAT HAS ALSO STOPPED US FROM TAKING ACTION DUE TO YOUR VIOLATIONS. IF A GRIFFET IS WITH YOU, THAT MAKES US QUESTION IF YOU ARE A DANGER. WE ARE CURIOUS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE. HAVING A GRIFFET WITH YOU IS NOT SOMETHING WE HAVE EVER SEEN.”
“Have you looked at the information you’ve taken from my memory?”
“WE HAVE. IT APPEARS YOU ARE CAUGHT UP IN A WAR WITH THE CIVILIZATION THAT BRINGS THEIR VESSELS HERE THAT WILL DIRECTLY AFFECT YOUR SPECIES.”
“Then you know we came here to see if there was another threat to us.”
“THERE IS NO THREAT HERE TO YOUR SPECIES.”
“We can see that now and we will be leaving your galaxy.”
“THE FIELD YOU ARE AVOIDING AROUND THIS GALAXY’S BLACK HOLE HAS BEEN REMOVED AND THE ONES THAT ATTEMPTED TO PLACE IT THERE HAS BEEN WARNED NOT TO ATTEMPT IT AGAIN. WE WILL NOT ALLOW A PREDATORY SPECIES TO PERMANENTYLY MILITARIZE ANY PART OF THIS GALAXY. YOU ARE FREE TO GO.”
“Do we have your permission to come through the black hole here and immediately leave for the other close by galaxies?”
“ANY ONE MAY TRAVEL THROUGH OUR GALAXY AS LONG AS THEY DO NOT VIOLATE THE PROTECTED SPACE AROUND THE INHABITANTS.”
“Does that include their starships?”
“IT DOES. DO NOT MOVE CLOSER THAN A MILLON MILES FROM ANY OF THE INHABITANT’S STARSHIPS.”
“I apologize again for our errors and it will not happen again.”
“PERHAPS YOU WILL COME BACK ONE DAY AND DISCUSS HOW YOU CAME INTO EXISTANCE. WE FIND YOU…INTERESTING.”