by Saxon Andrew
“They aren’t covered by these conventions. That ship going to the Violet Civilization was probably investigating the destruction of their main planet. They made sure that no civilization in their galaxy did it. If they had found any survivors of Earth in our galaxy, they may have sent every civilization to kill the offender.”
Dolly said, “I suspect they wanted to know if the survivors represented a threat to them. Like you said, their conventions don’t apply to other galaxies. It’s a possible threat to all of them that they were looking for in the Milky Way.”
Chris thought a minute and said, “We really don’t know for sure what their reasons were, but this discovery must be used to determine our future actions against the Violet Civilization.” Chris looked at the display with the burning planet and turned to Jillian, “How far back are we from our current time?”
“Forty million years.”
Chris fell back in his command chair, “They’ve been fighting that long?”
“Chris, this battle with more than two hundred civilizations taking part must have begun much further back than this. This is the product of what we saw at sixty million years.”
“You’re right. This entire galaxy is dangerous.” Chris said, “We need to see how this fight ended. Let’s start jumping a million years forward with each jump and see what fell out of this conflict.”
“We should keep the crew at general quarters until we make sure we’re not seen.”
“I agree. Let’s study what we’ve collected and give the crew a break.”
“I prefer to do that study in Sierra Space so we can see if anything is approaching us. The crew will remain at battle stations in normal space.”
“Notify the Wing Commanders.”
Dolly sent the message and the pilots left their ships to take a deserved break.
• • •
Admiral Tom Browne heard the alarm go off on his board and received a feed from a probe located at the edge of M-49. More than two hundred thousand starships had appeared and were forming up just outside the galaxy. He hit the general quarter’s button and said, “Notify our fleet that we’ll be jumping in thirty seconds. Weapons are free if we are attacked, but hold formation until that happens.” The Communications officer nodded and issued the orders.
“Tom, what’s going on?”
“We have a large fleet that just jumped in to the edge of the galaxy, Sir. I’ve ordered the fleet out to confront them.”
RV looked at the Probe’s feed and said, “We will be joining you momentarily.”
“Yes Sir, I’m going in weapons free.”
“Do what you have to do.”
• • •
The thirty thousand main battleships jumped and emerged less than fifty miles from the alien ships that were finishing moving into attack formations. The two hundred thousand ships remained in place and stared at the huge white ships in front of them. Thirty seconds later, another thirty thousand White Ships joined the first group and they launched a giant wave of small attack ships that surrounded the invading fleet before they could move. One of the invading ships at the back of the formation fired on one of the small craft and was hit with a mini-striker that blew the ship into rubble. The two fleets remained in position neither making another move.
• • •
“Gloria, are you hearing their transmissions?”
“I am and should have enough to start communicating shortly.”
Cyanna listened to the computer and was thankful that the Jenze learning device had been incorporated into their central processors. The computer would send and receive any communications such that both parties would be able to understand each other.
“I’ve got enough, Sir.”
• • •
The Fleet Leader was ready to launch his invasion when suddenly thousands of giant White Ships appeared directly in front of his fleet. Before he could issue any orders a cloud of small craft erupted from the ships in front of him and thousands of more ships joined the first to arrive also sending out a swarm of those small ships. In less than a minute his fleet was surrounded. He watched one of his ships destroyed by one shot from one of the small craft and knew that he was in deep trouble. His communicator was overwhelmed with traffic asking what to do but he knew that all of his ships would be killed before they could escape. Then his assistant said, “Incoming communication from those ships.” Every ship in the invading fleet heard the incoming message and they grew silent.
“Welcome to our galaxy. Are you here to vacation or is there another reason for your arrival?”
The Fleet Leader heard the message and did a double take. What was going on? His assistant said, “They may be offering us a way to leave peacefully. We should take them up on it.”
“Uhh...we were coming to visit.”
“Oh, well you must not have received the rules for visitation.”
“What rules are those?”
“We welcome visitors but you cannot come here in a warship. Our citizens are justifiably nervous about armed starships entering their living space. We’ve been asked to find those that once invaded our galaxy and remove them from creation. You aren’t the one that did that, are you?”
“No, we would never do that.”
“That’s a good thing. I regret that I must send you home but if you’ll come back in unarmed ships, we’ll be glad for you to visit. I’m also sure you won’t mind if we follow you home to ensure your safe arrival. We couldn’t sleep if something happened to you on your return.”
The Fleet Leader understood the veiled message. If they ever returned, his home would see this fleet again. He looked at his assistant and he said, “There are thirty millions of those small craft surrounding us.”
The Fleet Leader was shocked at the number and he said, “You are welcome to come and insure our safety. I thank you for your consideration. I’ll send you our coordinates.”
“You don’t need to do that. We’ll be able to make that determination ourselves.”
The Fleet Leader’s fear doubled and he issued the orders to jump home. His fleet disappeared and found the huge fleet of White Ships waiting for his arrival. He heard, “Be safe and I do hope you will follow our rules.”
“We will.”
“That’s good. We really hate making anyone an example.”
The giant fleet disappeared and the Fleet Leader answered the incoming communications demanding to know what happened. It didn’t take long before the large ball galaxy was put under quarantine. It would not be visited again. The leaders just hoped they would not be visited as well.
• • •
RV looked at the leader of the Harmony Federation and asked, “Was that the last civilization that invaded?”
“It was.”
“I suspect they won’t be coming again.”
“I have to agree and it appears our initial concerns were justified.”
“We put a probe to keep an eye on them. Don’t worry; we’ll make sure they don’t pose a problem.”
“We are impressed that you allowed them to survive. I think that will scare them more than destroying their fleet.”
“We don’t like to kill needlessly. That fleet represented no danger. It would be wrong to kill them if it could be avoided.”
“We agree and we’re thankful for you being here. All of our worlds thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
• • •
RV looked at Tom on his display, “I’m impressed with your quick response, Admiral.”
“We’ve trained enough to do it in our sleep, Sir. Do you want us to remain here?”
“No, return to your station. Tell your fleet that we are proud of them. Your unit will receive the first unit citation from our new alliance. Congratulations.”
“Thank you, Sir. I know they’ll be honored.”
• • •
Cyanna looked up from her display and raised her eyebrows. “Order the fleet back to port.” Cyanna nodd
ed and issued the orders. RV looked at the galaxy and wondered if a return visit was necessary. This was another place Chris and Jillian needed to scout. But first, M-87 needed to be completed.
Chapter Thirteen
Cyanna came on the bridge and saw RV sitting in his command chair with his eyes closed. She looked around at the night crew and went over and lightly kissed RV on the cheek. His eyes remained closed but he said, “I heard you coming.”
“I know; what are you doing?”
“I’m listening to Chris and Jillian’s reports on their findings.”
“I didn’t think they had done any recently.”
“They haven’t.”
“Then where did you get them?”
“I’m listening in on their live feed to Command. Everything we say is recorded and sent to the main frame on Sierra-Garcia. That way if a ship is destroyed we have a way of seeing what happened just before its destruction.”
“You mean everything we’ve said is recorded somewhere?”
“Everything said on the bridge.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Have you ever said anything you didn’t want recorded?”
Cyanna just stared at him.
“I know about my lunch reports.”
Cyanna walked quickly over to her chair, sat down, and crossed her arms.
“I understand your reasons for wanting me to eat healthier and I also know the waiters want me to live forever. That’s why I’ve worked hard to watch my consumption.”
“You have an unfair advantage.”
“No I don’t. You could do the same thing if you were interested in seeing what is entering the main frame. If you had looked you would have seen the active input and discovered you can look at anything being input. After the information is in the computer, it is assigned a rating and top secret recordings must be requested and approved before you can review them.”
“Chris and Jillian’s reports are not top secret?”
“Yes, but I can see them as they go into the computer on the active feed. I can’t record them but I get to see and hear them.”
“That means you have to be on the channel at the moment they’re speaking.”
“That’s right.”
“How do you do that?”
“Their departure was delayed six hours for a quick inspection of their pilot’s rankings. We would only allow our best to go with them.”
“Yeah, I remember that.”
“Well, Chris is a creature of habit. He always sets the ships time to his departure time. He also always does his day end reports at nine p.m. ship time where he discusses them with Jillian.” RV looked at the ship’s clock and said, “They should be starting in the next ten minutes.”
Cyanna slowly shook her head, “You are the sneakiest person I have ever met.”
RV shrugged and said, “I fear most underestimate my sneakiness.”
“This is how you manage to know so much more than us mere mortals.”
“That’s partially true. However, I’m not real happy that Chris and Jillian have not sent timely reports on their findings. I don’t think they do it intentionally; they just get busy and forget. I decided on this trip that there was too much at stake to not stay on top of their findings. I delayed their departure so that their discussions would take place during the night watch.”
“Why don’t you just get them from the main frame?”
“Have you ever tried to get information from the team that handles the main frame? I’d rather eat a salad than fight with them.”
Cyanna uncrossed her arms and said, “Do you mind if I listen in?”
“Not at all; I’ll patch the feed to your panel.”
Cyanna closed her eyes and listened to the background noise on the Jukebox’s bridge. Then she heard Chris say…
• • •
“Jillian, I’m somewhat concerned about our last scan.”
“I am as well. I don’t see any way we can get a look at the last hundred years without being seen.”
“Dolly, do you have any ideas about how to pull the last one off without discovery?”
“You have seen that there are more than three hundred different probes outside the galaxy’s edge. It appears all of the strongest civilizations don’t depend on each other to share their information.”
Chris slowly shook his head, “We’ve seen that the range is more than a hundred light years into deep space. I just don’t see how we can make that scan.”
Jillian thought about the problem, “I also believe those probes see in Sierra Space as well as normal space. If we intend to take a look we’ll have to jump from a long way out to the place in the light stream we want to record. If we make a jump closer than ten thousand light years, we’ll probably be seen moving toward them.” She paused and said, “Don’t you think we have enough? Do we have to make that last scan?”
“I think we know enough about the civilizations on the side of the galaxy toward the Violet and Yellow Civilizations. This side has not had any hostilities for more than eight million years. Something is going on there and the vast array of probes indicates that all is not at peace in that section of M-87. There are millions of warships but they are not being used.” Chris paused, “You’ve seen the changes in their ships over the last twenty million years. They are more advanced technologically than the other side of the galaxy. Why haven’t they conquered the other violent civilizations?”
Jillian shook her head, “I don’t know. They may be in a state of equilibrium and unwilling to work together. If one of them tried, the others might attack if they send ships away.”
“The point is; we don’t know. This could be a piece of the puzzle that could get us killed if we don’t know what’s going on. We at the very least need a recent snap shot of their planets.”
“That would mean a jump to within a light year, Chris.”
“I know.” Chris paused and sighed, “I know.”
Dolly said, “You could come in from over the top.”
Chris and Jillian were both shocked by the suggestion. Jillian gathered her wits and said, “Dolly, there is a radiation stream blasting out of that giant black hole in the center of that galaxy that extends more than a hundred and twenty thousand light years. Our force fields may not handle that level of radiation. None of the civilizations in that galaxy go anywhere near that jet.”
Dolly said, “The important thing you just said is ‘anywhere near’. We can possibly come in just outside the jet where the radiation is not so strong and make a scan. We might be hidden by the jet behind us. There is a large area between the edge of that stream and the closest civilization. We might be able to jump in close to the center of that galaxy and make a quick scan and then jump away.”
Chris looked at Jillian and then said, “Why didn’t you suggest this initially?”
“There is a high degree of risk. We’ll be jumping in not knowing just how wide the stream is at that point in time. It may just be that the nowhere close description is not really accurate. That stream could have experienced a massive eruption during the time we’ll be jumping in to.”
Chris said, “Dolly, how long would we survive if we jumped into that stream?”
“If we used every reactor to power our force field, I think we could last about thirty seconds. You would lose every attack craft on the hull. Their systems would be damaged within ten seconds.”
Jillian sat back in her chair, “And if we flew out of the stream toward those civilizations immediately upon arrival?”
“I suspect there would be some damage to the attack craft even then. However, you would be less than a thousand light years from the furthest civilization you want to scan. Most of them would be closer than twenty light years.”
“Is there anything else we should be aware of if we choose to do this?”
“You could not extend the fields until you were further than a light year from the stream.”
“How close would that put us
to the closest civilization?”
“Five light years.”
Chris thought a moment and said, “I thought the reactors were structured such that only four could be used for either weapons or defense at any given time?”
“The fifth can be used to reinforce the inner force field that is just outside the hull. It doesn’t cover the attack craft but should offer additional protection to the systems and crew inside the ship for a short period of time.”
“Five light years is not very far; even we could respond to that in less than a minute.”
“That is true.”
“Perhaps the ones that detect us would be reluctant to come that close to the stream?”
“That is an unknown.”
Jillian looked at Chris and he said, “Dolly, what would you do?”
“I wouldn’t take the risk.”
“Why not?”
“Those civilizations have not changed very much over the last six million years. I’m predisposed to protect those of you on board.” Dolly paused and added, “There are two other things that you should factor into this decision.”
“And they are?”
“We will not have our weapons available and you will have to fly the ship in.”
“WHAT!”
“I’ll have to power off my systems to avoid damage from the radiation. We will be defenseless and you will have to pilot us during this exercise.” Dolly paused and then added, “There is also a possibility that during the time we have not seen that there may be a planet closer to the stream than the ones we’ve scanned. We could be jumping in right on top of one of them and not know it until we arrive. If that happens, we’ll be immediately attacked and have no weapons to defend ourselves.”
Jillian chuckled, “So there are three considerations, not just two.”
“Sorry, I’m swimming upstream and looking at thousands of possibilities and that last one just occurred to me.”
“Chris, how long does it take for the fields to expand with the new systems?”
“Less than three seconds. We could take a quick scan and jump out in about five to six seconds.”
“That’s five or six seconds after we jump away from the stream if we land in it?”
“That’s right.”