by Saxon Andrew
“Why do you think that?”
“They’re the ones that go outside their galaxy and stir up trouble. I suspect they’re determining if there’s any other problems here.”
“Do you think that being was honest about staying away?”
“You heard its thoughts. It doesn’t see us as a threat. I don’t know whether to be insulted or not. However, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them and I do think they won’t be coming back here. All ships are free to go back to their original duties.”
Chapter Fifteen
Admiral Holiday looked at his monitor and saw the other three carriers come out of the black hole. “Alright, you have the rules. Move all your Carriers directly vertical above the black hole. We will move out of this galaxy completely before we start for the Flasher’s Domain. Send a squeal to the Prophet’s Eyes and head toward the meeting coordinates.”
“Sir, do you want us to split into two groups?”
“Yes, Admiral Hart. You and the Alexandria will approach the coordinates from below and scan for the presence of any Flasher Warships. I will wait with the Georgia above the location also scanning for enemy vessels.”
• • •
Erica heard the high pitched squeal over her console’s speaker and looked up, “They’re here.”
Essay nodded, “Poul, take us to the assembly location.” The Eyes suddenly went to full acceleration and turned toward the Flasher Galaxy. The speck of light was growing larger by the second and Essay looked at Kamela, “You don’t like this plan do you?”
“I’m not certain; I guess I feel strongly both ways. On one hand, it is a clear violation of the first Death Prophecy. On the other hand, it just seems to make sense.”
“I’m of the opinion that it is in keeping with the spirit of the Prophecies if not the letter of the law.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying, Essay?”
“The first Death Prophecy says to avoid confronting an enemy until it is absolutely unavoidable, right?”
“Yes.”
“This might be splitting hairs, but this plan’s purpose is to delay the confrontation between us and the Flasher Civilization.”
“But this is a confrontation.”
“I realize that, Kamela, but this plan is to remain an unknown enemy and that is the overall intent of the Prophecies. We can do this still keeping our unknown status and delay the future confrontation, thus avoiding it until it can no longer be avoided,” Essay said with his shoulders raised.
Kamela lowered her eyes and said, “Essay, you’re not certain about doing this so why not admit it?”
“I’m not certain about doing this. All it’s going to take is for just one of their vessels to get out images of what’s happening and we’ll lose a huge advantage we currently possess.”
Erica looked up and interjected, “If we do, then so be it. But we can’t just sit and wait for the Flashers to make a move with these ships. They need to be taken off the table now.”
Kamela looked at Erica and turned back to Essay, “Do you not think that your plan may cause them to retaliate with huge numbers?”
Essay shook his head, “They can’t; the Spearan and Langloh will move in and cut them off at the knees if they leave with their fleets to attack our galaxy.”
“Have you forgotten there are also six of those colony ships with a thousand Flasher Warships inside them on high alert?”
Essay sighed, “Kamela, if you’re really opposed to this, I’ll call it off.”
“What makes you think I’m opposed to it?”
Essay’s head went back and he said, “You are kidding me, right?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
Essay looked at Erica who was smiling, “Am I missing something here?”
“No, Essay, she’s just feeding you the doubts you have in your mind about doing this.”
Essay looked at Kamela who was smiling. Poul announced, “We’ve arrived.”
Essay looked up, “Thanks, Poul. Take us into Admiral Holiday’s landing bay.” The Eyes passed through the Tombstone’s force field and immediately saw the giant landing bay. They flew into the bay and landed off to the side. The three exited the small warship and saw Admiral Holiday waiting for them outside their ship, “It’s good to see you. I have the other Carrier Commanders in my conference room to go over the plan. If you’ll follow me, we’ll go and finalize what we’re going to do.”
They followed Admiral Holiday to the tube carts and a few minutes later they exited the carts and followed him to the conference room. They entered and everyone took a few moments to catch up on all that had happened. Finally, Cam said, “We need to get down to business.” He looked at Essay,” Have you decided if we’re still going to do this?”
Erica looked down at the deck and saw Penny and Timmy’s Griffet bumping up against each other. She had been so busy that Penny had gone unnoticed for the last few days.
“I have been struggling with whether or not this is a violation of the first Death Prophecy,” Essay responded.
Cam smiled, “Of course it’s a violation. We don’t absolutely have to do this now.”
“What makes it a violation, Admiral?” Essay asked.
Cam raised his shoulders and said, “Well there are six thousand Flasher Warships that we’re going to face off with if we intend to do this.”
Essay stared at him and then smiled, “And if we don’t confront them?”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
Essay started talking and after a few moments, the other Admiral’s began offering suggestions. At the end of an hour, Cam ended the meeting and the Carrier Commanders went back to their ships.
• • •
Timmy smiled and said, “Makala, are you ready?”
“Sir, our targets have been sent to us by the Flagship and we’re designating the missiles to their individual targets. We should have it done in another ten minutes.”
Timmy nodded and looked at his monitor. It was decided that the mission would be carried out by the Carrier’s Attack Fighters. The timing had to be spot on for the plan to work and the missiles had to be launched from outside the detection field around the target zone. He waited and finally he saw a green light illuminate on his panel, “Launch Ships.”
Fifteen hundred Attack Fighters shot out of the launch tubes on each of the four carriers. The carriers were located a light hour away from the target zone and the six thousand attack fighters arrived in less than a minute. Half of them went vertical and the other half dove under the giant formation of colony ships. They moved away and, on command, all six thousand vessels turned together and headed back toward the target zone. Two minutes out from the detection field, all six thousand launched one missile each. They immediately turned and went to maximum speed back to their carriers and were being brought on board at a record pace.
• • •
The twelve Flasher Warships scattered around the giant formation were motionless and most of their systems were at half power. The sudden alarms set off by the detection field had them scrambling to go to full power. The six giant colony ships housing a thousand Flasher Warships inside them began opening their landing bay doors as six thousand Flasher Warships scream out of them as their alarms went off. They moved out among the giant colony ships but didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary. They searched the area above and below the formation for what could have triggered the alarms but the incoming missiles were all inside a Dark Energy force field and went undetected by the Warships.
One moment there was silence except for the alarms going off in the Flasher Warships and the next moment, all six thousand giant colony ships in the huge formation went up in a massive dark energy explosion that blasted the Flasher Warships scattered among them into atoms and sent a gigantic shockwave toward the planet more than two million miles away. When the shockwave hit the planet’s atmosphere, it set one side of the planet on fire. Not only were the colony ships des
troyed along with all the Flasher Warships but most of the scientists working on the new double force fields died on the planet’s surface. This was a shocking defeat for the flashers.
• • •
“We’ve recalled our attack ships. What do you want us to do now?”
Essay blew out a breath as the shockwave passed the Prophet’s Eyes and continued out into open space between the two planets in the star system. “Move your Carriers out and stay inside Kamela’s telepathic range. We’re going to have to wait until the Flashers send a fleet to investigate what happened here and perhaps we’ll be able to hear what they intend to do about it.”
“Is there not another primary target we can take out while we’re here?”
“Actually, this one was dubious. Remember that the First Prophecy says not to take action unless it’s unavoidable. We’ve managed to escape being recorded this time and we don’t need to press our luck with another attack.”
“If this was dubious, why did we attack these colony vessels,” Admiral Holiday asked.
“One of the Flasher Leaders suggested he might send a hundred million colonists into our space. This attack was primarily to take that option off the table.”
“You know that he’ll realize you were listening to him?”
“I guess but they don’t realize we have some telepaths that will hear them no matter what they do to encrypt their normal communications.” Essay heard a low tone start building in volume and he glanced over his shoulder at the Sonic Scanner. The lights on it were green and he turned back around, “We have a large Flasher Fleet moving this way. Take your ships out of this area and we’ll let you know what to do next.”
Cam looked at the Bosrean on his monitor, “Notify the other Carriers to fall in formation and follow the Tombstone.”
The Bosrean relayed the orders and settled back in his small ship that was parked in the corner of the giant landing bay. He was much more comfortable staying in his ship with its sulfur atmosphere than having to live in his armor.
• • •
Erica looked at Essay, “It appears they’re coming armed for confrontation.” Essay nodded.
“That new Flasher Leader is with them, Essay.”
“Kamela, see if you can hear what that leader is planning.”
“I’m listening to his thoughts now.”
• • •
“It appears that threat from the Spiral Galaxy has come here to prevent our colonizing planets in their space.”
“Yes, it does, Computer.”
“What’s bothering you?”
“Do you have our last conversation recorded?”
“I do.”
“Do you remember me mentioning sending colonists to that space?”
“You did mention it in passing and I responded that you might not have a choice.”
“Well. I mentioned towing the two destroyed scouts out of that other space and before we could get there, they’re blasted into giant debris fields. I mention sending colonists and our colony vessels are immediately attacked even after we started encrypting our communications.”
“They’re still listening in on you.”
“Yes they are. It appears they’ve broken that encryption. If they broke that one, I’m reasonably certain they will be able to break any new ones we develop and we won’t be able to prevent their hearing us.”
“I should have considered that, I’m the computer here.”
“You’re right. Now I have to assume they’re listening to me right now.”
“What are you going to do?”
“They’re not where we can find them. However, I want you to pick a warship at random back in our home space and connect me with it.”
• • •
Erica looked at Essay, “What is he doing?”
“I don’t know?”
• • •
“How may I be of service, Council Grengen?”
“You will fly directly to the second location of our colony vessels and tell them they are ordered to complete communication silence. If I need to communicate with them, I will send a ship! You are also restricted to communication silence from this moment until you return.”
“Yes, Council Grengen, I’m leaving now.”
• • •
Essay looked up and rolled his eyes. Erica said, “We can hurry and find that ship!”
Essay was shaking his head as he said, “Poul?”
“Erica, there are millions of Flasher Warships in this galaxy and we do not have that ship’s pattern or the thought pattern of its commander. Finding it is impossible. I saw the line the communication was sent on but I’m sure there will be thousands of Flasher Warships on that line and there will be no way of knowing which one is going to the other Colony Ship location. By the time we follow the line of communication, the ship carrying that message will already be gone.”
Essay sighed, “We should have followed the Prophecies and not attacked here until we were certain there weren’t any other Colony Ships. Once again, we’ve learned the hard way that when we don’t follow the Death Prophecies, bad things happen.
Kamela shushed him as she listened with closed eyes.
• • •
The Council Grengen looked up and said, “I know you’re probably listening to me right now. I don’t know who you are or where you’re located but I will make you pay for this. If I have to take every warship we possesses, I will find you and destroy you and damn the costs.” The Grengen looked at his monitor, “Call in the support vessels to assist the planet with the casualties. We will be leaving momentarily.”
• • •
Essay shook his head and looked at Kamela, “Tell Admiral Holiday to take his four carriers away from this galaxy and to stand by. I don’t expect I’ll use him in the near term and you should share with him what we heard from that Flasher Leader.”
Kamela nodded and made connection with Admiral Holiday. A few moments later she looked at Essay, “That Flasher Leader knows that he was making an idle threat. There’s no way he can take his warships and leave with the Spearan and Langloh threat.”
Essay looked at Erica, “I just couldn’t listen to that small voice telling me to back off and wait. Now, we’ve lost the opportunity to find the other colony ships.”
“But we’ve not lost the means to stop them.”
“What do you mean, Erica?”
“If they were to send a fleet toward our galaxy, they’ll have to take one of two routes to get there. We’ll station a line of Attack Ships in each of those locations and you know the range of our sonic scanners. We’ll hear them coming in time to respond.”
Essay nodded and smiled, “So this is not the disaster I think it is; it’s just a bump in the road.” Erica nodded and Essay looked at Kamela, “Send my conversation with Erica to Admiral Holiday and have him station his Carriers on the two routes to the Milky Way and Andromeda black holes. We’ll call him in if we need him.”
Kamela nodded and connected mentally with Admiral Holiday. An hour later, the four Carriers divided into two-two ship formations and activated their stardrives. Kamela looked at Essay, “They’re moving out three hundred light years from the Flasher Galaxy. They’ll be close enough to respond to us and also hear anything moving toward our space.”
“Poul, take us to the Flasher’s Great Grinch.”
“They call him the Great Grengen, Essay.”
“Whatever, find him!” The Prophet’s Eyes disappeared into other space and accelerated toward the center of the Flasher Galaxy.
• • •
“So you’ve placed the other location of the remaining colony ships in your Father’s responsibility?”
“I have and I’ve told him to move them to a new location and to stay there with them until we call for them. He is forbidden from communicating with anyone.”
“Do you think whoever destroyed the first group won’t be able to find them?”
“My father knows how to hide ships,
Great Grengen. He was a scout originally and knows what to do. He won’t put them were they would easily show up on a scanner. They will remain hidden until we need them.”
“But to effectively move a large number of our populations will require a larger fleet than the one we now have remaining.”
“The Colony Vessels will just have to make multiple trips when the time comes.”
“You’re assuming that you can defend them against the threat in that space.”
“We won’t be using them until we prove we’re up to that task.”
“And just how long is that going to take?”
“To install the double force field on all our warships will take at a while. In the meanwhile, we have to keep the former slaves in line. I suspect they will be growing more aggressive over time.”
The Great Grengen blew air out of his neck slits, “I will leave it in your province to handle this. Don’t fail to defend my planet.”
“I will put a fleet in orbit large enough to take on all attacks.” The Great Grengen disappeared from the Grengen’s monitor.
“Do you honestly think you can prevent that invisible enemy from attacking the Governing Planet?”
“Computer, you know as well as me that is probably not possible but I suspect we won’t have to defend it.”
“Oh, why is that?”
“Why would they attack it? All of the Councilors are no longer on the planet. Why would they expose themselves needlessly? They are doing everything in their power to prevent us from seeing how they are destroying our warships. That’s not possible if they attack the governing planet”
“Why?”
“Because if we know how they are destroying our ships, we can build a defense against it. It is going to take something serious to bring them back out into the open.”
“Do you honestly think it’s going to take years to go back to that Spiral Galaxy?”
“I do.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the detection field around our colony ships detected a large surge in Dark Energy just before the Colony Ships were destroyed. I don’t know how this enemy is using Dark Energy but they are using it. Our scientists will have to work on determining if Dark Energy has any real use as a weapon before we go back.”