Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time)

by Andrew, Saxon

  He debated and also worried that his field might be noticed as well. There were so many of the light brown inhabitants in the open ground that he would be forced to come close to many of them. As he tried to make a decision he noticed movement among the beings. As it became darker, they started moving into large groups and clustered together. He shook his head. Most herd animals moved closer together at night for defense. These beings didn’t have anything to be frightened of but their instincts still made them most comfortable in large groups. The thousands were shifting around and in less than an hour, the gaps between them had grown to more than a hundred yards in most instances. He activated his field, rose out of the ground, and walked to the edge of the forest. He had his translator in his ear and could hear the closest group talking among themselves. He decided that he wasn’t going to make a trip to the temple tonight; he would listen to some of the groups to see if he could learn anything from them. He determined that the inhabitants had moved into large family clusters and were discussing the issues that affected their families. He moved ten yards closer to the group and listened.

  • • •

  “Jelil has threatened to leave without permission if the Elder does not approve her union to Trab.”

  The male chewed and said, “He will not approve for the immediate future.”

  “Why not?”

  “Too many of our young females are paired with warriors. They could end up alone if the next assault turns ugly. Then the family will lose them and their possible children. They will weigh on the family having to continue to support them until they die. Jelil is infatuated with a pilot of a warship; the Elder will only approve of their union if the pilot survives the next war.”

  “You know she won’t listen to reason.”

  “That’s the nature of being in love. She could run to his family but they would just send her back; they will not violate the Elder’s prerogative.”

  “How long do you think she’ll have to wait?”

  “I’m surprised the war hasn’t already started; I understand there has been a hold for the moment.”

  “I didn’t hear that.”

  “It was embedded in the sermon if you paid attention.”

  “You know I’m too busy with the children to listen all day.”

  “I know; that’s why I’m here.”

  “What do you think about this next war?”

  “There is a carnivore species that eats the inhabitants of the worlds it conquers.”

  “NO!”

  “Yes they do. I know it’s hard to fathom but the word I’ve heard about them is that they are a highly advanced civilization and losses could be quite high. I think that’s why the Elder has insisted those couples with Warriors be pushed to start their families. It’s also why he won’t approve Jalil’s request.”

  “Do you think we’ll prevail?”

  “Of course. The Chosen says that our path is already a success. We must stay on it and all will be fine.”

  “But if they’re really advanced…”

  “They will fall like all the others. The price might be high but we will prevail.”

  “You should talk to Jalil.”

  “Bring her here; I’ll try to teach her to be patient. I think her fear of losing him in the coming conflict is what is really pushing her to the edge.”

  “What are you going to tell her?”

  “That if he dies in the war, she will never have a family. The bonding is for life and she will wither and die without him. If he loves her; he will insist on waiting until he comes back. If he won’t; he’s not the one for her.”

  “I’ll go get her.”

  • • •

  Leon moved away from the couple and moved closer to another family unit. He listened to more than thirty of them through the night and all of them were talking about the same thing. The young couples with warriors were being pushed to start their families. It appeared everyone of the inhabitants knew about the coming attack on the Yellow Beings. And the information was sent to them in the sermons being transmitted by the huge Temple. He was also bothered that there appeared to be a large number of warriors just in the family groups he listened in on but there were no warships above the planet. How were they going to be moved to their ships? He found the answer in the last group he moved in on. He saw two young males talking just outside the edge of the cluster of inhabitants.

  • • •

  “Have you heard anything about the call up?”

  “It’s been delayed.”

  “Why? I thought we had all the information we needed to launch the assault?”

  “It appears the Exalted Military Commander has received information that leads him to believe the target is going to use its fleets to invade another galaxy. If that happens, we’ll go in pretty much unopposed at the start.”

  “Are they preparing our ships?”

  “They are ready and will be sent here when the time is set for the operation. You should enjoy this time.”

  “Are you going to start a family?”

  The young male moved his small proboscis side-to-side and nodded, “I have no desire to have children and leave Kelei alone to raise them. However, she has been bonded with me and if I don’t there is a possibility that she will never have children.”

  “Do you honestly think it will be that bad?”

  “I’ve seen the warships we’ll be facing; our ships are no match for them.”

  The other young male nodded slowly and stood up, “You’re right. I’m going to discuss this with my mate.”

  “You should.”

  • • •

  Leon listened to the conversation and was perplexed. Why would they be attacking a civilization that was more powerful? It just didn’t make sense. How could they possibly hope to win? He looked at the giant temple and saw it had a soft glow around it. That had to be a force field. It had not shown up on the SR’s scanner. He thought about it and moved back into the forest. He went deep into the thick trees. He used the neural connector to pull up the images of the giant structure and saw that there were vast grazing lands inside the walls. He had the images fast forwarded and at no time did anyone outside the facility enter it. He pulled up a section of the walls and moved the view in closer. The large raised, circular shaped object on top of the wall didn’t seem to fit in with the wall. There were numerous flowers growing on it and it added brilliant colors to the temple’s appearance. Leon looked under the object and saw that the wall was thicker. The round object had to be a blaster cover and the size of the blaster had to be gigantic. Leon moved the view out and saw there were round covers all the way around the walls with only twenty feet separating them. The temple was a fortress. He shook his head and was glad he hadn’t tried to enter. He moved into the soil and began replaying the prior day’s sermon. The adult male said the information was embedded in the sermon. He needed to see if he was being honest.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dat looked at Gresha, “I have to go back to the SR’s.”

  “Why? What’s happened?”

  “It appears Mitchell and Leon launched a large number of Trackers; hundreds of them are sending coordinates and it appears that civilization is located in ten or more galaxies.”

  “What?”

  “I need to get this analyzed and see what we’re facing but I have to go now.”

  Gresha moved up and hugged Dat tightly. Dat was still amazed at his wife’s strength. The Havens were powerful beings. She was beautiful but she was far from dainty. She kissed him and looked into his eyes, “Please be careful. I don’t trust those Yellow Beings.”

  “I think they feel the same way about us but we may be forced to work together.”

  “Let’s talk about that before you make any decisions.”

  “Do you sense something?”

  “They will not work with us.”

  “They’re doing it now.”

  “I don’t know what it is about them that bothers me so much but I
sense they will not allow us to enter their galaxy with a battleship.”

  “They might not have any choice in the matter.”

  “Just don’t make a quick decision.”

  “Now you know I always make good decisions.” Gresha leaned back and looked in Dat’s eyes as she raised an eyebrow. “Well, most of the time I make good decisions.” Dat smiled, “I promise I’ll consult the Union’s Leadership before I commit us to anything.”

  “That would be good, Darling. Now stay safe.”

  Dat rushed through the Jukebox and found Einstein waiting for him in the landing bay. He boarded and the SR moved out of the landing bay and jumped away.

  • • •

  Leon was at the edge of the forest watching the inhabitants grazing in the clear land between the forest and the temple. He stood inside the forest’s edge and knew he couldn’t be seen. Suddenly, a strong breeze blew through the forest and moved out into the plain. Leon saw all the inhabitants standing closest to him suddenly stand up on their rear arms and lift their six inch long noses into the air. As the breeze blew across the plain, more and more of the light brown colored creatures stood and lifted their noses into the air. They could smell him. He instantly activated his personal field and ran from the edge of the forest. He went left and moved at an incredible speed through the trees as hundreds of the inhabitants moved quickly toward the place he was formerly standing. Leon was stunned. His species did not have a smell. That trait was a product of their evolution. Predators needed stealth to be successful and the absence of an odor made Leon’s species dangerous to any life form. However, it was now clear that he did possess an odor and the inhabitants could smell him. It was probably a very small odor but these beings had noses that were incredible.

  • • •

  The inhabitants arrived in the forest and went to all fours and began smelling around the forest’s edge. They gathered at the place he had been standing but Leon’s residue had faded when he ran away.

  “What was that?”

  A large male shook his head as he smelled the ground, “I don’t know. I’ve never smelled anything like that.” The male stood, “Have any of you ever smelled this before?” Everyone moved their noses up and down. The male said, “Contact the temple and report this. They should bring a team in to see if they can find the animal that smells like this.”

  A female said, “Don’t you think you’re overreacting? Whatever is was, it’s gone now.”

  “Unless one of you can tell me what it was, I will not jeopardize the safety of my family.” The male waited and his statement was greeted with silence. The male said, “Contact the Temple.”

  The young priest pulled a small item out of his pack and began speaking.

  • • •

  Leon saw the large crowd around the place he had been standing and then he heard a series of noises coming from the direction of the giant temple. He looked up and saw numerous small aircraft flying over the forest. Damnation, they were coming in to search for him.

  He had walked through the forest all along the edge and moved through the soil the first night he arrived. They were going to determine that a strange creature had been present. That might lead to a real danger. He activated his belt and manipulated the gravity unit. He rose high into the trees and saw the aircraft had landed and hundreds of armed warriors were pouring out and forming up. He remembered that the original scan of the temple only revealed a thousand beings inside it and there were more than that starting the search. The scan had not been effective. He remained floating in the tops of the trees and held on to the top of one of the trees to avoid being pushed by the freshening breeze.

  He watched the searchers move through the forest holding a device in one hand and a blaster in the other. Oh Crap! The searchers began calling out to each other as they scanned the decaying carcasses of the eight legged animals. They determined that he had taken a bite from hundreds of them. He looked out and saw thousands of small specks were moving toward the forest from the horizon. He looked around and saw they were moving in at high speed from all directions. He saw the first blasters being fired to burn the trees and he pressed the emergency recall button as he changed the gravity unit to a full push. He shot off the planet at an incredible speed.

  • • •

  Mitch receive the recall signal and moved quickly away from the ship building planet. He went to full speed and arrived outside the ranks of warships in less than an hour. He hit the jump button and skipped away.

  • • •

  Leon slowed his pace as he moved out into space. He was traveling at close to four hundred thousand miles an hour and there was nothing near for him to use to slow him down. He sighed and hoped Mitch was still alive. Despite initial appearances, this civilization was highly advanced. He continued to fly away from the planet and wondered if he was going to die.

  “Where are you, Leon?”

  Thank the Gods of Prey, “I’m moving directly away from the planet on a line from the forest where you dropped me.”

  “I can’t see you inside your field.”

  “It’s too dangerous to lower it; that fortress on the planet will see me if I do.”

  “Fortress?”

  “I’ll explain later. However, according to my sensor, I’m moving at four hundred thousand miles an hour and I’m a little over five hundred thousand miles from the planet.”

  “I’m moving the ship to that line and accelerating to match your speed. The computer has an approximation of your location and we should be close to you.”

  Mitch, can you open a small portion of the field?”

  “Yes.”

  “I believe all the scanners in this system are on the planet. If you can get between me and the planet and open a small section away from their scanners, I should be able to use my gravity unit to pull me inside your field.”

  “Leon, we would have to be close for you to see us; you know how small this ship is.”

  “Depend on the computer to put you in a good place.”

  Leon waited a few minutes and heard, “I have the field open away from the planet; do you see me?”

  Leon looked around, “No, I don’t.”

  “Alright, I’m going to move side to side and see if we’re possibly not in your line of sight. Starting movement now.”

  Leon stared back at the planet and saw nothing, “I still don’t see you.”

  Mitch thought for a moment and said, “Leon, can you widen the gravity beam.”

  “Yes, there is a control to widen it.”

  “Well make it as wide as possible and see if you move in a different direction.”

  Leon widened the beam and felt a small pull to the left, “You’re left of my current location.” Leon felt the pull move from the left to directly in front of him, “Hold that position; you’re directly between me and the planet.” Leon shrunk the beam’s width and felt his speed pick up. He backed off on the pull and watched space in front of him. In ten minutes he saw the Stealth Rover in the distance. “I see you. I’m moving toward you.” Thirty minutes later Leon entered the field and went through the small port. “Get us out of here, Mitch.”

  The SR skipped into the barrier and Leon began telling Mitch what he had uncovered. Mitch turned on the display and showed Leon what he had recorded. Leon’s head almost fell off his body in shock.

  • • •

  “What do you mean you didn’t find anything?”

  “Exalted, we burned the forest to the ground and went over every inch of it. Whatever caused the odor was not present.”

  “Then where did it go?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “But you confirmed it was a carnivore?”

  “Yes, it had taken small bites from the dead cirabow.”

  “How small?”

  “The creature couldn’t have been very large; the bites were small.”

  “Tell me how a carnivore was able to live on the Holy Planet?”

  “There is no possibl
e way for one to exist on the planet’s Holy Ground, Exalted.”

  “But one was there.”

  The Warrior was frustrated and the Exalted saw it, “It defies all odds that a carnivore could survive on the planet. There are only two possibilities.”

  “What are they?”

  “This may be a creature that has an extremely long growth cycle and has just recently hatched.”

  “What’s the other?”

  “It came from off the planet.”

  The Exalted stared at the Warrior Leader and said, “I want the entire planet scanned for another one of that creature. If the first possibility is what happened, others should be hatching now. However, we know of no creature like the one you’re describing.”

  “Then it came from somewhere else?”

  The Exalted stared at the Warrior, “Were the bites the size those Yellow Carnivores would make?”

  “No, their jaws couldn’t make a bite that small. It also begs the question of how one of them could get here without being detected. They don’t possess the means of avoiding our scanners.”

  “We’re missing something.”

  “The only way this could happen if the creature came from off the planet is for it to have a way to avoid being seen by our scanners.”

  “Have we encountered any civilization that possesses that technology?”

  “No, Exalted, we have not.”

  “That doesn’t help answering this.”

  “Is it possible that we are being watched just as we are watching the Yellow Carnivores? A civilization that we have no knowledge of?”

  “If that were the case, don’t you think we would have smelled them before now?”

  “I was just throwing out possibilities; I just don’t have an answer for what happened here.”

  The Exalted’s nose moved up and down and he finally said, “Perhaps the first possibility is the most likely. We’re all reluctant to accept a carnivore could still be on the planet but nature has a way of pulling tricks. Make the scans and see if another creature shows up.”