by Saxon Andrew
“It’s not the home world of the species inhabiting it. This planet appears to have been settled about thirty years ago, judging by the number of communities and farming being done.”
“Did you do a scan of the starship that was here last time?”
“I did. It’s not really advanced. The Traugh will have no problems defeating its technology.”
“Is there another starship in this system?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Maybe the Traugh will just ignore them.” Steve stared at the planet and then noticed that neither Poul nor Lani responded to his remark. He thought about it and blew out a small breath. The Traugh seldom passed up an opportunity to appease their cruelty.
• • •
The hundred Traugh Warships arrived and five of them left the main line and moved into the planetary system. They arrived at the planet and Steve listened to the communications between them. “This planet doesn’t have high technology.”
“They’re trying to communicate with us. I don’t understand their language but I suppose they want to know our intentions.”
“We need to go and catch up with the line but I think we have enough time to pay our respects to that city below us.”
“I agree, you may say hello first but leave enough for us.”
• • •
Steve watched the center Traugh Warship warm up its disintegrators and fire a brilliant beam from low orbit into the center of the city. There was a massive explosion and the Traugh Ship Commanders cheered the shot. The other four ships hit the large city with four disintegrator beams scattered around the first hit. Steve looked at the tactical and saw the species in the city were burned and more than ninety percent of them were blasted by the Traugh Beams.
• • •
“GET YOUR SHIPS BACK IN LINE AND IF I SEE YOU WASTEING TIME AND ENERGY AGAIN I WILL BEAT ALL FIVE OF YOU SENSELESS!!!”
The five ships accelerated out of the planetary system at their maximum speed and assumed their positions in the advancing line.
• • •
Steve looked at the burning city and shook his head. Twenty minutes later, a hundred starships appeared and Steve knew that they were really lucky they had not arrived earlier. He heard Lani say, “God, I hate those demons!” She looked at Steve, “This is our fault.”
Steve nodded, “I know. But they would be doing the same thing wherever they go.”
“Until they encounter a more powerful civilization.”
“Why do you say that, Poul?”
“The odds of running in to one goes up the closer they move to the core of this galaxy. That is where the oldest stars are located and the odds of an advanced civilization goes up the closer they get.”
Steve nodded and watched the city burning below. He sighed, “Poul, you can handle the communications from now on. Just don’t make contact when we move to another location until I approve it. I also want you to edit out anything that mentions your capabilities.”
“I’ll put a ten second delay on our transmissions to be able to make the edits.”
“That would be good. Lani, I suggest you go and get some sleep. We have a lot to do after the meeting in the morning.”
“Would it be wise if I handle the communications during that meeting?”
Steve looked up, “Poul?”
“Just sit at your console and look busy. I can maintain the field better than you can.”
“Ow, that hurts.”
“You do a good job, but the field does fluctuate.”
“Let him do it, Lani. I need your mind clear so you can help make sure I don’t miss anything.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And Poul, during the meeting, if you hear anything and your analysis shows something different than what the speaker says, write your analysis on my console’s monitor. Keep at it even if I don’t mention what you see during the meeting.”
“I will remove the ten second delay during the meeting so don’t mention my capabilities while it is taking place.”
Steve nodded and stood up, “Poul, follow that line of Traugh Warships and wake me up if anything happens.”
“Such as?”
“If they get into a battle, let me know.”
“Will do.”
Steve walked off the bridge and a few moments later, Lani followed him.
Chapter Nine
Steve sat in his command chair and looked at the main wall monitor. He glanced at Lani and she was also staring at the monitor. He glared at her and she smiled, looked away and appeared to be pressing buttons on her panel. Boy, she could read his expressions! He saw Admirals Malone and Rickman talking as Admiral Knott studied something on his computer. Admiral Osborn entered at two minutes before nine and sat down. She nodded at an officer sitting in front of the conference table and he heard, “Can you hear me, Admiral Connor?”
“I can, Sir.”
“Good, let’s get this meeting started. We’ve been looking at all the data and information you’ve been sending us and the most concerning information is what your computer said about the consequences of the Traugh running into an advanced aggressive civilization in Andromeda. The fallout from the new Unknown Enemy and the Traugh going to war is also bothersome. We need to set priorities on how we’re going to approach these issues.” Pam looked at her Senior Admirals and said, “We discussed this briefly yesterday when we postponed the meeting. Admiral Malone is of the opinion that we should start attacking the Traugh ships in Andromeda now. However, Admiral Knott and I are of the opinion that will cause the Traugh Supreme Leader to send millions of ships there, which could cause them to encounter an aggressive civilization even faster. What is your opinion, Admiral Connor?”
Steve glanced at his console and looked up, “He’ll be sending millions of ships even if we don’t attack.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he is not threatened at home. If we don’t do anything to cause the Traugh and the UE to contact each other, he has no reason to keep his ships at home.”
Steve glanced at his monitor again as Pam said, “That is a good point. So attacking them now doesn’t have any real benefits.”
Steve nodded, “And it does violate the First Death Prophecy. Don’t confront an enemy until it’s absolutely unavoidable. There is also another possibility that needs to be considered.”
“What is that?”
“The Supreme Leader might consider expanding his domain into Andromeda if he doesn’t encounter a dangerous civilization quickly. He’ll do what we’re considering to ensure the survival of his species.”
“He’ll send colony ships there.”
“It is a possibility.”
“Admiral Malone, do you still think we should attack them now?”
“I’m just tired of waiting and doing nothing.”
Connor said, “Every day we remain hidden, we add warships to our inventory.”
Malone nodded, “You’re right. But if the Traugh are going to colonize Andromeda, we could stop them from doing that with an attack.”
“We could also pick a different galaxy to colonize which would probably be a better idea anyway.”
Pam looked at Steve, “Why is that?”
“You heard the odds of there being aggressive civilizations in Andromeda. We have ships that are fast enough now to go to galaxies much further away. We should look for a galaxy that is younger than the Milky Way. The odds of running into a more advanced civilization is greatly reduced if we did that. However, we need to start sending out colony ships soon.”
The four stared at Connor and Steve saw Malone start shaking his head, “I think that would be a task that we could do to keep our fleets occupied. We need to keep them busy.”
Pam looked around the room and then looked at Steve, “What do you intend to do?”
“The Traugh are going to take a long time to really penetrate the Andromeda Halo. I’m going to take a look at this new aggressive civilization we disco
vered across the black hole. Once I’ve done that, I’m going back to Andromeda to see what’s there.”
“That’s covering a huge area. Do you think you can get that done in a reasonable time?”
“I don’t know. But those should be my main priorities.”
“Do you need to come back and provision your stores?”
“Probably but I’ll do that before I head back out to Andromeda.”
“We fired our new blaster beam and missile at a ship with our most powerful force field.”
“And?”
“The Blaster Beam penetrated but the missile failed.”
“I would suggest that our engineers find a way to increase the penetrating power of the missiles. They probably won’t harm the UE and the Traugh are also in question.”
“We’re working on that now. One approach is to put a blaster head on the missile that will fire as it approaches an enemy ship blowing a hole for the missile to penetrate.”
“Can that be done?”
“I don’t know. There are several other ideas being explored as well.”
Steve saw something out of the corner of his eye and saw Lani typing on her console. He looked at his monitor and smiled as he looked up, “That is an even better reason to delay our attacks in Andromeda until we develop the missile needed to penetrate more powerful force fields.”
Pam looked at her Admirals and Malone shrugged. Knott said, “The Admiral makes sense. It would be better to wait.”
Steve saw a flash and looked up at his tactical monitor, “Sir, the Traugh Warships we’ve been following are in a battle with a planet’s warships.”
Pam frowned, “We have enough to work on. Focus on what’s happening there and send recordings of what’s happening. I’ll let you know when I need to talk with you again.”
Steve looked up and ran his hand across his neck. The view on the main monitor didn’t change and he saw Lani typing on her console. A moment later, the main monitor went dark. Steve shook his head, “Poul, I need a way to tell you to end our communications.”
“Lani just typed me a request to end them.”
“I need a faster way to make it happen.”
“You could just say it.”
“I don’t want it to be obvious.”
“Oh. Do you see the black button on the right side of your panel?”
Steve looked down, “I do.”
“That button was originally used to deactivate a force field. Just press it.”
“Is it connected to anything?”
“No but I’ll be able to see you do it and I’ll cut communications.”
“Good enough. Move us into that battle and start making scans.”
“I can do that from here. The Traugh are getting the worst of this battle.”
“They’re losing?”
“The hundred ships we’ve been following are now destroyed and the Traugh Fleet Commander has ordered his fleet to the planet.”
“Are the planet’s ships more powerful?”
“No, there’s just more of them. The hundred ships were attacked by six thousand warships. The Traugh Fleet will probably win this fight.”
“How many ships does the planet have to defend it?”
“Thirty thousand but others are appearing as we speak.”
“Record what’s going on and send the recording in one burst. I don’t want to have to edit what I say.”
“Should I leave your conversation out of the recording?”
“That would look suspicious. Just hold the recording and I’ll make comments at the end.” Steve looked at Lani, “Thanks for that message during the meeting. I should have thought of that.”
“You had other things taking your attention. I had the luxury of sitting back and listening without having to answer questions.”
They watched the battle as the first Traugh Fleet arrived and the battle took on a savagery that only space battles could cause. Steve shook his head as more of the white warships defending the planet came roaring in. Soon, the second Traugh Fleet joined the first and the battle spread out into the planet’s system.
“Steve.”
“Yes.”
“Excuse me, I mean, Admiral. Those ships are using missiles against the Traugh. And according to Poul’s scans, they are close to the power of the ship Pam and Sparky used to attack the Traugh Home World.”
“What are you saying?”
“The Traugh may believe that this is the planet that sent that ship to attack them.”
Steve jerked his head up, “Poul, is what she said true?”
“The Traugh Supreme Fleet Leader is of the opinion that the planet is the enemy they were sent here to find.”
“But those ships don’t really match up with the ship used to attack them.”
“The Traugh never saw a different ship, Admiral. They only saw the Traugh Warship that was converted to more powerful technology and Lani is right. Those ships are close to the power of that Traugh Warship.”
“This is not good.”
Lani tilted her head, “Why do you say that, Admiral?”
“If they think they’ve destroyed the enemy that attacked them, they may restart their expansion in the Milky Way.”
“They won’t do that right away.”
“Why not, Poul?”
“Because they are going to wonder where the additional Warships are coming from. I’m of the opinion that the warships being sent to this planet will be able to defeat those two Traugh fleets. More than sixty thousand additional warships have appeared and the Traugh Commander has ordered a retreat.”
“This is only a delay. The Traugh will definitely send a massive number now that they’ve found this planet.”
“Probably. But for the moment, they are stopped out here in the halo surrounding Andromeda and there is a real possibility that the Supreme Ruler may choose to expand here before he starts expanding in the Milky Way again.”
“We need to see what’s here.”
“I agree, Admiral. More ships are arriving and the Traugh Commander has ordered his ships to escape the best way possible and communicate this planet’s location to the Supreme Leader.”
“Do you think any will escape?”
“Probably. They’ve scattered and stopping them all won’t be easy because they are faster than the white ships attacking them. Besides, the Traugh have been launching message probes and one of them was launched prior to this battle really kicking off. It will certainly get back if none of the ships survive.”
“I feel bad about this civilization being destroyed in our place.”
“Don’t be.”
“Why not.”
“The planet they’re defending was conquered by the species flying the white ships. The local inhabitants have been forced into slavery.”
Steve blew out a breath, “Well, never do what someone else can. I was thinking about chasing that probe down and destroying it. But this puts a different light on what’s happening.”
“The Traugh will know that this is not the home world of the white ships. They still have to find where those are located and I suspect that is going to take some time.”
“Can you find them?”
“If you want to wait for one of them to leave, I can follow it.”
“How will you know which one is going back to their home world?”
“I’ve deciphered their language and I’ll follow one that says that’s where it’s going.”
“You’ve learned their language that fast!?”
“That was the original intention of putting eight computers on board. I’m really quite good at learning languages.”
Steve shook his head, “Find one and follow it.”
• • •
Two hours later Poul announced, “A white ship is headed back to their main planet to report in.”
Steve said, “Record my remarks and add them to the end of the recording of the space battle.”
“Ready to record now.”
Steve looked into the monitor, “It appears there has been a major development. The two Traugh Fleets were defeated by a civilization that is flying the white ships you will see in the recording of the battle. We’ve intercepted the Traugh Commanding the two fleets and he sent the survivors back with the location of this planet along with a message saying that this civilization is the one that attacked their home world. The white ships do match up with the power of the Traugh Warship we modified and they also use missiles. The planet the white ships were defending was a conquered planet so the evidence supports that the white ships come from an aggressive civilization. I am going to follow one of their ships back to one of their home worlds to see what the Traugh are up against. I think this is Death Prophecy Two and we should allow this civilization to take on the Traugh. They appear to be located in the outer halo that surrounds Andromeda and should keep the Traugh out here and away from the core for a while. I’ll send you recordings of what is uncovered at this species’ home world.” Steve pressed the black button and Lani said, “Communications have ceased.”
“Poul?”
“The ship I’m following is not headed toward the galaxy proper but is moving in the halo. I’m going to leave this ship behind and fly on the course it’s currently taking.” Steve stared at the star streaks start rushing past at a faster speed and in fifteen minutes they slowed. “I’ve arrived at the planet that ship was headed toward.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Take a look.”
Steve looked at the main monitor and shook his head. A planet was on the monitor with a massive number of white warships holding formation around it. “How many?”
“More than a million.”
Lani walked forward and stared at the monitor. She shook her head and a chair rose out of the floor next to Steve’s command chair. He nodded toward it, “Take a seat.”
“Are you sure it’s ok?”
“Come on, Lani. There’s no reason for you to sit in the back and squint at the monitors. The view is better up here.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Poul, what can you tell me about this planet’s defenses?”