Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time)

by Andrew, Saxon

  • • •

  Dat waited outside the huge galaxy with eight thousand Stealth Rovers. The small ships were scattered around the galaxy and waited for one of the probes inside the glowing giant to be called out. The fields prevented the strange probes from broadcasting but they could still receive communications. Two days passed and nothing happened. Dat began to wonder if his plan was going to fail. “SIR, I HAVE A PROBE JUMPING OUT!!”

  “Don’t lose the jump track! Stay on it!” Dat waited for the Rover that spotted the probe to report in. Everyone had been ordered to complete silence until the probe was followed to its destination.

  • • •

  Lila Allen stayed on the probe’s path as it moved through Green Space. She stayed in the skip barrier and didn’t break into Green Space where her passage could be detected. The probe jumped more than a million light years from the galaxy it was formerly occupying and emerged into normal space and remained stationary. Lila took her Stealth Rover out of the barrier six hundred miles from the probe and waited. “What do you think is going on, Lila?”

  “I’m not sure, Caesar. I suspect they are scanning everything around that probe to make sure they can approach it without being seen.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  Lila looked at the large Matador and pressed a button on her panel, “I’m launching a tracker; move out close to that probe. I’m continuing to block it from communicating and I hope if a ship does come, they will take the probe on board to check it out. They’ll have to lower their force field to do that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the probe can’t be taken through it without damaging it. If they lower their field, we’ll get the tracker to lock on the ship.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  “We’ll just have to make sure we don’t lose it when it leaves.”

  Caesar looked at the display. He wondered how long it was going to take before a ship showed up. Two days later, he wondered if one was going to show up at all.

  • • •

  On the fourth day, Lila sat up in her chair as alarms began going off. Caesar was up immediately looking over her shoulder at her display, “Holy Prey!” Lila shook her head; more than a hundred thousand rust colored battleships were in normal space rushing around the probe scanning for anything that might have followed it. Caesar said, “You need to cut the field around that probe.”

  “I can’t Caesar. They’ll know it was followed if it starts communicating. I have to wait until it drops its force field.”

  Caesar watched the battleships expanding their search and rolled his head to his midsection, “You’re not going to have a choice; they’ll be here in a few moments.”

  Lila watched her display and kept her finger on the field button, “Come on! Cut it!” She stood up and yelled, “CUT IT NOW!” The probe’s force field went down and Lila punched the field button and lowered the Rover completely into the barrier. Three seconds later, ten rust colored battleships flew through the space her ship had occupied.

  Caesar watched the display and said, “That was close.”

  Lila nodded and said, “The ship closest to the probe is not a battleship. It appears to be a science vessel of some sort. It’s taken the probe on board and my computer says the tracker followed it in.”

  Caesar shook his head, “I thought they couldn’t detect us.”

  Lila shrugged, “I don’t think they can…but I’m not willing to take the risk. Warships usually have better electronics than probes.”

  Caesar stared at the images being sent from the molecule sized antenna still in normal space. “I don’t see any way we can follow them.”

  “You’re probably right. We’ll have to depend on the tracker to send us their location.”

  “What do you think they’ll believe happened to their probes?”

  “I don’t know. They may just turn off the force fields of all the probes still in that galaxy to see if they start working properly.”

  “And if they don’t?” Lila shrugged.

  • • •

  “Sir, the probes are moving away from the planets they’ve been scanning. Now they’re turning off their force fields for a tenth of a second.”

  Dat thought for a moment and said, “Einstein, what do you make of that?”

  “The Rover may have had to stop blocking that probe.”

  Dat’s eyes went wide and he pressed his communicator “General Anderson, stop our probes from blocking their communications. Do it now!”

  Anderson looked at the officer at the control panel and nodded. The officer pulled up a clear cover and threw a red switch. Every Union Probe stopped sending the fields around the strange probes. Einstein said, “That Rover that followed that probe must have gotten into a tight situation.” Dat nodded.

  • • •

  Lila waited in the barrier as the hundred thousand ships continued to sweep space. After twelve hours, they all jumped away together. Lila sighed, “We can’t skip in after them. We can’t run the risk of being seen.”

  “We were ordered to follow.”

  “I know; but I don’t think the Admiral thought more than one ship would show up. We have a tracker on that science vessel. We have to hope that is enough. If we skip in after that ship, I’m sure the hundred thousand battleships will have their scanners overlapped watching for anything near subspace. I can’t risk it.”

  “Are you leaving now?”

  “No; my sensors show a thousand ships hanging in Green Space near the place that probe was located. We have to wait until they leave. You might as well get some rest. The computer will let us know when they depart.” Caesar nodded but continued to stare at the display.

  • • •

  Einstein looked at the communications log, “No word from the Rover that followed the probe?”

  “No, nothing.”

  “That doesn’t sound good. If they were able to see it, our galaxy could become their next target.”

  “I suspect it will anyway; they know the Blue Ships have been communicating with us.”

  Dat opened his eyes and saw the lights flashing on his panel, “What are you two talking about?”

  “We’re concerned about the SR that followed the probe.”

  Dat sighed, “I am as well. It’s been six days and we should have heard from them. I was told the Stealth Rovers were hidden just as effectively as our probes. We’re going to have to try another way to find the civilization sending those probes.

  “Dat, I have a Tracker Probe reporting in from a distant galaxy!”

  “What!”

  “I have a Tracker sending coordinates from a distant galaxy. It’s more than five hundred million light years from here.”

  “That SR must have gotten a tracker on one of their ships.”

  “Well what’s happened to the SR?”

  “Einstein, I have no idea but that has to be where the civilization is that’s sending the probes.” Dat thought for a moment and said, “Loree, get Leon’s SR on the channel.”

  Dat stared at the wall display and he saw a human and a Matador appear on it, “Leon, I think we’ve found where the probes are coming from; I want you and Lt. Mitchells to go and see if you can find out what we’re up against.”

  Leon looked at Mitch and said, “Sir, isn’t Lieutenant Mitchells in command?”

  Dat shook his head, “He is not, Leon. He will follow your orders and offer whatever advice he deems important but this mission is under your command. The days of not trusting your species is over; you’ve proven yourselves against the Servants. It is critical that you not be discovered and collect everything you can on what that civilization has in its arsenal.”

  Leon nodded and looked at Mitch, “What would you suggest we do?”

  Mitch looked at Leon and then at Dat, “Before I drop Leon, I think we need to take a look at some of their planets and see what he’d be up against. We’d be able to select the best target once we take a look around. The first thin
g we’ll have to do is see if they can see us.”

  Dat nodded and smiled, “It appears you two will make a good team. I’m sending you the coordinates. Leave now and take a look at what’s there.”

  Mitch nodded, “Sir, if we’re discovered, I’m going to send a data dump with everything we’ve collected. If they find us, there won’t be a need to continue hiding; they’ll know they are being watched.”

  Dat’s eyes went down and he said, “Have a tracker programmed with everything you have. If you run into trouble, launch it. I don’t want to run the risk of your communications being tracked.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Mitch entered the coordinates into his panel and backed off two hundred thousand light years from the destination. He looked up at Leon and said, “Jump in ten seconds.”

  • • •

  Dat watched the Stealth Rover on his panel and it disappeared. He pressed his panel and saw the Yellow Being appear, “We’ve received a communication from one of our tracker probes. It is located in a galaxy half a billion light years from your galaxy. We’re sending a ship to see if that is where the civilization sending the probes is located.”

  “What are the coordinates?”

  “Are you planning to send ships there?”

  The Third looked at the Lead Master and saw him start to get angry. He quickly said, “You will not tell us what we can and cannot do.”

  “Wouldn’t you want to know what you’re going to run into before you jump in? What if showing up there causes a massive attack on your galaxy. Do you know if you’re prepared to meet it? I will share with you whatever our ship discovers. If you jump in, it may make spying on them impossible.”

  The Lead Master’s color began softening and the Third said, “Keep us informed.”

  “I will.”

  • • •

  The Second looked at the Leader, “Do you think we should depend on them to provide us information?”

  The Leader remained silent and the Third said, “The real issue is whether or not we can collect information without being seen.”

  The Second turned toward the Third and showed his anger at being interrupted. The Leader said, “Go on and say what you’re thinking about, Third.”

  “We know they have huge numbers of probes here; that has to mean they are planning an incursion into our space. If they’re that far along in their plans, we could precipitate an invasion if they see our ships in their space. We need to know how many ships we’ll need to meet them. Getting those fleets ready will take some time and having them attack here before we’re ready would not be good.”

  The Leader leaned back, “You are right. This is an unknown and we will probably be attacked if we start organizing our fleets. Start getting our Fleet Leaders to have the ships under their commands pre-visioned for war. Have them organize on the side of our galaxy toward that spiral galaxy. The probes watching us might get their senders to believe we are going to attack the spiral galaxy and they will hold off their attack until we launch the fleets.” The Leader looked at the Third, “Tell the one you’ve been communicating with what we’re doing so he won’t think we’re going to attack his galaxy. We don’t need any mistakes right now. You will also tell the fleets that we’re going to attack the Spiral Galaxy so that if any of their communications are intercepted, the probes will have their suspicions verified.”

  The Masters were once again impressed with the wisdom of their Leader and they started issuing orders to the thousands of fleets.

  • • •

  Lila looked at Caesar and shook her head, “I don’t think those ships are going to leave.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Caesar, their engines aren’t active. Even if they detected us, they’d be unable to pursue. I think they have been stationed here for the sole purpose of determining if the probe was followed. Their patience is extraordinary.”

  “Would they just leave a thousand warships out in open space serving no other purpose than acting as a probe?”

  “We wouldn’t; however, maybe they have enough ships to not have to be concerned. I’m not going to wait on them any longer. Timmy, do you detect any of their scanners in normal space?”

  The ship’s computer was silent for a moment and then said, “No, I don’t detect anything in normal space.”

  “What are you going to do, Lila?”

  “I’m going to operate under the assumption that they can’t see us inside our field. I’m going to go to zero mass and fire a small thrust sending us away from their current location. We’re about six hundred miles from where they entered normal space and the thrust should get us more than ten thousand miles away in less than a minute. Once we’re ten thousand miles away, I’ll hit a higher thrust and move a hundred thousand more miles away. Then, I’ll barely hit the barrier and skip a hundred light years away. We’ll scan for an hour and see if anything shows up. If nothing does, we’ll go back and report in.” Lila dialed the gravity control back and hit the thruster. The SR accelerated away and Lila kept her eyes on her display. The ships in Green Space remained stationary, “Timmy, I want to know if any of them start warming up their thrusters.”

  “There is no activity, Lila.”

  Lila watched her panel and hit the thrusters again. Their speed increased substantially and sixty seconds later she hit the jump button and skipped away. The SR appeared in normal space and Lila intently watched her panel. She shook her head after an hour, “Maybe I was being too cautious.”

  “Lila, a ship has appeared at the place where you skipped the barrier.”

  “Show me, Timmy!”

  Lila watched the ship enter normal space and hang motionlessly. Caesar was looking over her shoulder and said, “Did they see us?”

  “They detected something; I should know momentarily if they think it was a ship.”

  “How will you know?”

  “If the other ships arrive; they’ll know. If that ship leaves, they’ll pass it off as an anomaly.” Lila watched the feed coming in from the tracer probe they left behind at the skip point and saw the ship lower its force field. She hit a button and the view disappeared.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’ve sent that tracker to lock on the hull of that ship. We’ll know if it remains out here or returns to the galaxy it came from. Timmy, did you drop two trackers?”

  “Actually, I released three.”

  “Activate one of the others.”

  The view came back on and the rust colored ship appeared to be jettisoning something from its hull. Lila shook her head, “They’re not environmentalists; they’re dumping their garbage. They didn’t see us.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “They are taking the opportunity to dump their garbage; they wouldn’t do that if they thought another ship was close by.” They watched the ship and thirty minutes later it disappeared. “Timmy?”

  “The tracker has it jumping back to its original location.”

  Lila smiled, “Let’s go back.” She hit the button and jumped back to the galaxy of the Blue Ships to report in to Admiral Arvolo.

  • • •

  “A hundred thousand ships!?!”

  “Yes Sir. They immediately fanned out and started scanning for us.”

  Dat looked at Katherine and Gresha on his display as they listened in to Lila’s debriefing and saw Gresha shake her head. “What are you thinking, Gresha?”

  “Would we send a hundred thousand ships to check out a probe?”

  Dat shook his head and Katherine said, “No; I can only think of one reason they would send that many.”

  Gresha nodded, “They have enough ships to do it.”

  Katherine nodded, “That’s the way I see it. If I had a billion warships, sending a hundred thousand wouldn’t even make me blink.”

  “Sir, they left a thousand of those ships behind in Green Space to see if anything appeared. They’re still there.”

  “Were you able to get a good scan of them?” />
  “I did.”

  “Send that scan to Admiral Hull’s panel. Did you detect anything of interest?”

  “I don’t think their ships are as strong as ours. The energy readings were lower than either our ships or the Blue Ships’ readings. However, they weren’t a long way off.”

  Dat shook his head and Gresha said, “They don’t have to be as strong if they have numbers on their side.”

  Dat looked at the display, “Lt. Allen, you said you managed to get a tracker on one of their ships?”

  “Yes Sir, I did. I also sent two other trackers back to their location in the hopes they might also manage to lock on to a hull of one of the ships looking for us.”

  Dat looked at Katherine who looked off away from the display for a moment and said, “What do you have?” She listened for a moment and said, “The two trackers you sent are no longer sending. That must mean they were able to attach to a ship’s hull.”

  “I suspect those ships entered normal space, lowered their fields and jettisoned their garbage.”

  Katherine said, “I’ll let you know if they manage to find another planet.”

  Gresha looked at Dat, “Are you going to tell the Yellow Beings?”

  “Not just yet. They’re itching to go and introduce themselves. This information might push them over the line. We need to hear from Lt. Mitchells and Leon before we update them.”

  Katherine looked at Dat, “How is the fleet training coming along?”

  “Angel’s fleet is light years ahead of the other units but they had a jump on getting the Rover Pilots first. The others are making progress but it’s going to take some time for them to master the new tactics.”

  “We don’t have enough ships.”

  Dat looked at Gresha, “Why do you say that?”

  “The Rovers played a huge role in the last war with the Servants. All of the Jukeboxes used in that war are now outdated and we only have the new model to use.”

  “The old model has been sent back and is being reworked by Belwen’s engineers. It is being rebuilt to fly sideways normally. He says the majority of them should be ready within six months.”

  Gresha looked at Katherine, “How many battleships will that give us?”