by Saxon Andrew
“What are they doing?”
“I really can’t tell. They’re not using any type of scanner that I can detect.”
“I’ve heard a rumor that they were attacked by some ships from another galaxy. I thought it was just propaganda but it might be that the rumor is true.”
“Should we tell them what we’ve detected?”
“No, don’t do that. Pass this information on to Control Center and let them decide what to do about it.” The Communication Controller nodded and activated the long range antenna. The Ship Controller smiled. If the Asengo were attacked and weakened… He hoped he was right about this. His civilization could use the additional space but had to be ready to act first if the situation called for it. He smiled and hoped feathers would fly.
• • •
The flashes finally stopped and Lani stood up and went to her chair. Steve looked up, “Did you find anything?”
“Actually, I did. There are four intelligent civilizations here and only one of them has space travel. It has not developed a stardrive and is exploring the planets in its star system. That leaves room for Earth to colonize planets here.”
“Did you find any habitable planets suitable for colonization?”
“I found eight.”
“That’s incredible.”
Lani took out her earplugs and looked up, “Poul, I’ve been looking at the database and this dwarf galaxy is a satellite galaxy circling the Milky Way.”
“That’s correct.”
“Won’t it one day be pulled into the Milky Way? I mean I know it won’t happen for millions of years but that could cause any colonized planets problems in the distant future.”
“Not in this instance. The Fornax Dwarf Galaxy is actually moving away from the Milky Way and not moving toward it. It also has the added feature of not having a large black hole in it either. It doesn’t spin and the stars pretty much remain in place. Those are part of the elements that make it so difficult to see.”
Steve nodded, “Take us to the closest habitable planet and let’s take a look at it.”
“You’ll need to put on a facemask with breathing apparatus if you want to step outside.”
“Why, I thought it was habitable?”
“It is but your first arrivals will have to take a look at the microbes on this planet and make sure they won’t kill you. I’m sure antibodies can be developed against them but none are available now so the facemasks will keep them out of your lungs. The ultraviolet light will kill them when you reenter the ship.”
“Great, let’s go take a look.” The viewport flashed briefly and they saw a beautiful blue and green planet below them. “Poul, take us down to a shoreline.” The ship moved quickly out of orbit and headed toward the coast of a large continent that straddled the equator.
The ship landed on a cliff overlooking the ocean and Lani jumped out of her chair, “Let step outside and take a look.” Steve nodded and followed her to the exit port. They opened a locker and took out two breathing apparatus and put them on. The port opened and they stepped out and walked to the edge of the cliff. They looked in the sky and saw large birds circling high above and the waves crashing on the cliff wall far below reminded them so much of Earth. Lani shook her head and put her arm around Steve’s waist, “It’s so beautiful.” Steve nodded as they both stared out to sea.
Suddenly, a huge sea creature leapt out of the ocean in a towering leap. Their eyes went wide and then a creature came out of the water and caught the first leaper in a set of massive jaws that bit it into two pieces. It crashed back into the water and the splash was gigantic. Lani’s eyes looked like they were as big as saucers. She stared at the ocean without turning her head and said, “Did you see the teeth on that thing!? They’re bigger than I am.”
Steve stared at the ocean and saw the giant leap out of the waves with one of the pieces of its prey in its giant jaws. It swallowed it before it crashed back in the water. It had barely hit the surface when another giant creature came out of the water with the other piece in its jaws. The surface of the ocean was tumultuous as the giants were in a frenzy just below the surface. Steve lifted his communicator, “Poul?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see that beast?”
“I did.”
“Humans like to go to the beach and go swimming, Poul.”
“They won’t like doing it here.”
“Why don’t you take us to the next planet and let’s take a look at it.”
“What’s wrong with this one?”
“That thing was big enough to take a destroyer down.”
“Its teeth wouldn’t penetrate the steel hull.”
“It wouldn’t have to; it could flip it over and shake the crew out like a pez dispenser.”
“Ok, get back on board and I’ll turn on the ultraviolet lamps while we’re going to the next one. You might want to stay on board this time.”
Lani looked at Steve and said, “Why is that Poul?”
“There is a land predator that will need to be brought under control.” Lani opened her mouth but they saw the next planet through the bay’s port hole.
The lamps turned off and Steve removed his facemask, “Let’s go to the bridge and take a look with the scanners.” Lani nodded, removed her mask, and followed Steve to the bridge. Steve walked in and looked up, “What was this you were saying about a land predator?”
“I’ll move close to the surface and show you one or two.” Steve and Lani sat in their chairs and saw the surface rush up toward them. The ship stopped above a huge clearing that had hundreds of strange animals grazing in it. Steve shook his head, “Poul, how big are those plant eaters?”
“They are slightly smaller than an African Elephant on your planet.”
Steve lowered his head and stared at the clearing through his eyebrows, “And there’s a predator that preys on them?”
Lani jumped to her feet as a giant something came out of the tree line at an incredible speed and was on one of the large herbivores in an instant. It knocked it off its feet and had its neck in its jaws faster than they could follow. Lani’s mouth was open and she finally managed to say, “HOW FAST IS THAT THING?”
“Cheetah speed.” The two stared at the four legged predator tearing its catch apart with a wide gaping maw filled with rows of razor sharp teeth. Poul watched them and said, “Hey, a hand disintegrator will handle it easily enough.”
Lani shook her head, “If you have freaking time to aim it!”
“Listen, any unsettled planet is going to have predators and the prey they feed on. Your planet once had giant long teethed tigers and giant cave bears, not to mention those things you called Wooly Mammoths. Your ancestors overcame them and became masters of your world. The colonists are not going to land on a planet with little bunnies and squirrels running around in a beautiful flower garden. You’re going to have to tame the planet and make a place for yourselves in the planet’s ecology.”
“How many of those giant predators are there on this world?”
“They’re pretty much everywhere. Far too many to count. But if you clear land and put out electronic systems to warn you when they approach, you can come and make a new home for your species here.”
Steve shook his head as six more of the monsters rushed out of the forest and fought over the first one’s kill. “Take us to the next one, Poul. We need to see what the colonists would be up against before we decide which one will be settled.”
Lani shook her head as the ship rose in the atmosphere, “I wonder if those predators could be domesticated.” Steve looked at her with his head back. “You know. Train them like guard dogs to keep the others away.”
“I doubt that is possible, Lani. The dispersion of them around the clearing indicates that they are extremely territorial. They already don’t get along with each other and I suspect your moving into their territories will cause them to attack. Of course, if that happened, you could remove most of them from around the land you choose
to build your first city.”
Steve rolled his eyes, “But then they’d adapt and learn how to attack us. Life finds a way to survive.”
“That is true. Here’s the third planet.”
Steve looked out of the viewport and another beautiful planet hung in space under the ship. “What predators are on this planet?”
“There are large predators in the oceans but they stay in deep water where the really large prey lives. I have not seen but one or two within ten miles of the shorelines.”
“What about land predators?”
“There are small predators scattered around the planet.”
“No large predator?”
“There is one species of what you would describe as a reptile that stays close to water. It’s like a Nile River Crocodile but larger.”
“How much larger?”
“It’s about fifty feet long.”
“What in creation does it prey on?”
“There are animals the size of elephants that are amphibious. They live along the rivers and streams and they are the primary prey of the large predator.”
“Is this large predator on every continent?”
“They are but they are primarily located in the tropical latitudes.”
“So in the northern latitudes, there aren’t any?”
“That’s correct.”
“This is the first choice so far. Do you agree, Lani?”
“I do.”
“Take us down and let’s at least take a look at one of them.” The ship dropped to the planet’s surface and hovered over a large river. Steve looked at the main monitor as Poul used the optical telescope to bring the image of one in closer. The image cleared and Steve shook his head, “Merlin’s burning beard! That thing looks like a cross between a four legged T-Rex and a dragon. One third of its length is the jaws!”
“It’s primarily at home in the water. It isn’t that fast on land, it has too much weight to carry around. The weight of its head makes it difficult to run very far.”
Lani stared at it, “Does it live along the shore lines.”
“It doesn’t tolerate sea water. They are located where the rivers flow into oceans but not very far away.”
“Let’s go see the next planet.”
Lani shook her head, “That is a very dangerous predator.”
“It is but it will make a good trophy for hunters. Eventually, their numbers will be controlled. I notice in the data Poul collected that the latitudes above the tropical zone have a temperate climate and that’s where the colonists will settle. They won’t have to deal with that beast until population pressures force them south. That could be a very long time in the future.”
Another planet appeared below them and the ship moved toward the surface. At the end, they chose three planets that were optimum for colonization. Steve contacted Fleet Admiral Osborn and she called in the ship commanders that were chosen to command the colony ships. Steve shared the data they had collected and the first planet to settle was selected. The initial development teams were notified and the first ships left Earth a week later to start studying the microbes and nail down the location of the first settlement.
Steve and Lani sat on the ship looking down on the planet selected to colonize and Lani sighed heavily. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t get the image out of my mind of the giant sea creature we saw on the first planet.”
Steve shook his head and they heard Poul say, “Uhhhh…never mind.”
Steve’s eyes narrowed, “What were you going to say?”
“It doesn’t matter. That planet wasn’t chosen.”
“You’ve made me curious, what?”
“That creature is not the largest predator. It just happened to appear while you were watching.”
Lani started shaking her head. “How much larger is the biggest predator?”
“Four times.”
“WHAT?”
“It’s about four times larger than the ones you saw.”
“Do you have an image?”
“FORGET IT, STEVE! I’m going to have nightmares about the one we did see. I don’t need to see the creature that preys on it.”
“Ok, ok! Poul, you can show me when she’s not here.”
Lani rolled her eyes, “Men!” She stood up and walked off the bridge.
“Now?”
“Roll it, Poul.”
The monitor illuminated and Steve watched the predator come out of the water with one of the large sea predators he had seen in its maw. His eyes were wide as he shook his head and said, “That one could pull an aircraft carrier underwater.”
“I doubt it.”
“I don’t.” Steve stood up and was still shaking his head, “I should have listened to Lani. That’s an image I won’t forget.” He walked off the bridge and went to his quarters.
Poul wondered what he should do but he had not been given orders to do anything. He looked at the data and decided to go and see what the Traugh were doing. They were the closest predatory intelligent species. He’d listen in to their communications to see what they were up to.
He arrived at the Supreme Leader’s planet and had to back out quickly. The space around the planet was filled with Traugh Warships and more were arriving by the moment. He began intercepting their communications and after a few minutes, he said over the ship’s intercom, “I think the two of you should come to the bridge and take a look at this.”
“What’s going on, Poul?”
“I think the Traugh are planning a major invasion of Andromeda.”
“We’ll be right there.”
Poul waited for them to arrive and wondered when all the kissing they were doing was going to slow down. He decided that it wouldn’t be very soon. Steve arrived a moment before Lani and both of them stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the main monitor. “The Supreme Leader has decided to send two thirds of his warships to attack the White Civilization.”
Steve stared at the images of millions of ships and walked slowly to his command chair. “Something must have happened while we were in the dwarf galaxy.”
“According to what I’ve been able to intercept, the scouts went and located the twenty main planets of the White Civilization. However, they did not detect the other civilizations surrounding it.”
“How could that happen, Poul?”
“They must have been only scanning for their communications. If that’s what they did, they would not have seen the others.”
Lani looked at Steve, “What do you think will happen?”
“Any number of things could happen. The White Civilization will defeat them but be so weakened in the process that they are in turn attacked by the forces surrounding them. There is also a possibility that the war could spread out of the halo and that really nasty civilization at the core would show up. If they detect any Traugh Warships fleeing toward the Milky Way…”
“They could also team up with one of the civilizations around them and attack the Traugh together.”
“You’re right, Poul. Do you have any probabilities on what is the most likely scenario?”
“I think the civilizations surrounding the Whites will move to the edge of the halo and prevent any ships from crossing into the galaxy proper. They know about that civilization at the core and do not want them to get involved.”
“Do you really think that is a probability?”
“If you were in their place, would you take that risk?”
“I really hope you’re right about this.”
“Uh oh, we have a game changer.”
“What’s going on?”
“A white ship has been detected and it got out a message before it was destroyed. The Supreme Leader is furious and has just executed the Traugh Fleet Leader that allowed it to get close enough to scan the gathering of warships. The decision to invade is not being reexamined.”
“Shouldn’t the Traugh Warships be fast enough to follow the direction of that message and kill the ship
that received it?”
“I think, and I don’t have anything to support this, that the White Ships spread their ships out so that they could send the warning down a line of linked ships back to Andromeda. The Traugh will discover that shortly and what they decide to do next is totally up in the air.”
“What if the scouts weren’t linked?”
“I don’t think the White Civilization’s Leaders are so dumb as to not plan on getting a message back knowing the Traugh Warships are faster. However, I could be wrong.”
“Let’s go see.”
“Good idea.” Steve and Lani closed their eyes quickly but were still momentarily blinded by the flash.
• • •
They suddenly stopped and heard Poul say, “The message has just been received by the ship you see in front of us and it has retransmitted it.” There was another flash and they saw another white warship. “It has just received the message and transmitted it again along the same line.”
“I guess we can safely assume that the Whites will know about the planned invasion.”
“I agree, Admiral.”
“Take us back to the Supreme Leader’s planet.”
This time they closed their eyes and opened them when they felt the ship come to a stop. “See if the Traugh learn about this.”
“I’m listening in now.”
Chapter Fourteen
The Mosan sat at his desk and watched the feed coming from the newly discovered planet. He felt great joy at its discovery but he was bothered. He contacted the Group Commander of the ship that found the planet and he appeared on his panel a moment later. “Group Commander, have you sent one of your ships to follow the line of the communication wave that led us to the new planet?”
“I have sent a Mini-Pod to examine both lines, Mosan.”
“What did you find out?”
“The line that led us to the planet continued out to the edge of the outer arm and continued into deep space.”
“Is there anything on that line away from the galaxy?”
“There are two small galaxies close to that line but they are a long way from the outer arm.”