The Warrior raised his nose and lowered his head. He turned and went to organize the search. Something just didn’t feel right; he couldn’t put his nose on what it was.
• • •
The small SR hung in space waiting to see if it was followed. Leon looked at Mitch, “You need to contact Admiral Arvolo now.”
“Why?”
“The Matador Scouts are in danger if they’re sent out to the planets of that species. You know he’s been receiving the transmissions from the trackers.”
Mitch pulled up a frequency and pressed the communicator. Dat appeared on the monitor and said, “Lt. Mitchell, it’s good to see you.”
Leon leaned in and said, “Admiral, it’s imperative that you not send any Scouts to the civilization we’ve just visited.”
Dat’s face turned serious, “Why not?”
“They can detect the Matadors. They’ll be in danger of discovery as soon as they arrive on the planet.”
“I’ve dispatched more than a hundred Stealth Rovers.”
“You have to recall them!”
Dat looked away and said, “I’ll get back to you.”
Mitch looked at Leon, “I hope we’re not too late.”
Ten minutes later Dat reappeared, “We’ve stopped all but three of them.”
“Send a message to the Scouts that they have to remain inside their personal fields. If they come out, the locals will smell them and launch an attack.”
“Standby.” They waited and Dat reappeared on the display, “The three have been notified and they’re changing their locations. One of them has barely escaped and managed to be picked up by his ship.”
“The other two should be picked up and all the Stealth Rovers recalled. I think we have enough information for you to decide what to do next.”
Dat nodded and disappeared from the monitor. Leon looked at Mitch, “How much longer do we need to wait?”
“I think we’re safe; if they had tracked us they would have shown up with several thousand ships. I’m make ten random skips away from the Yellow Galaxy and then skip back to the SR’s holding station.” The small ship disappeared.
• • •
Dat looked at the downloads Mitch sent to his computer and shook his head. Loree said, “Dat, these creatures make the Servant’s forces look like a small squadron.”
Dat sighed and nodded, “Send this information to Admiral Hull and ask for a meeting of all the Senior Officers.”
There was a slight pause and Loree said, “Done.”
Gresha looked at Dat from his display, “Are you going to send this information to the Blue Ship Leaders.”
“They call themselves Pumgas. I really don’t see how I can avoid doing that; do you think I shouldn’t?”
“I have no idea on whether or not that would be the right thing to do. What do you think they’ll do once they receive it?”
“My best guess is to either launch an immediate attack against the planets we’ve found or enlist our aid in taking them on.” Gresha shook her head and Dat said, “What?”
“Dat, we’ve not seen anywhere near the scope of that civilization and what little we’ve seen is horrifying. Do you think they know the location of the Milky Way?”
Dat paused and slowly shook his head, “We did detect one of their probes that followed one of the Blue Ship Squadrons to our galaxy. However, our probes did not detect a transmission from it before we destroyed it.”
“What about the other incursions they made to our galaxy?”
“Our probes did not detect one of those probes before. They might not know about us.”
“I would suggest you send the information and remove all traces of our presence from the Pumgas’ Galaxy. We can decide later if we want to return.”
Dat nodded and activated the frequency of the Pumgas Master, “I have collected some information on the civilization that is sending the probes.”
The Third looked at the monitor on his section of the large table and said, “Send what you have to me.”
Dat hesitated but pressed the send button on his console. “I’ve included the location of all the planets we were able to uncover but suspect we are nowhere close to their total planets.”
“You’ve been helpful and we thank you. You may now remove your probes and ships from our galaxy.”
Dat was surprised at the statement, “Are you sure you want us to leave before you look at the data?”
“We are; we do not accept foreign forces in our domain. This was a rare exception.”
“I will order my ships and probes out.” Dat’s display went dark.
• • •
The Third looked at the data and saw the fear of the Masters absorbing the information. The numbers of warships were in the millions and that was just at one planet. The Second looked at the Lead Master and said, “This is unsettling.”
“They are very much like the Servants. However, they appear to know they are no match for our Battleships.”
The Third leaned back, “But they still plan to attack?”
“We will not wait for them to come to our galaxy. I want the locations of those planets with the fleets of warships sent to our Fleet Commanders and we will launch a preemptive strike against them. Those ships do not have crews on them at the moment and we should be able to reduce their numbers considerably if we act immediately. We’ll jump our fleets from their current location; we should have complete surprise. Once the ships are destroyed, we’ll send out our scouts and find the other planets of this intruder. Our fleets will jump back here to await their reports.” The Third looked at an image of one planet with two million warships parked in ranks around it. What if this was only a small number of their total planets? He wanted to say something but knew the Leader would not welcome his view. The Master’s color showed he was determined. He did say, “We should bombard the planets to eliminate them from building more ships. Do we send a fleet to that planet that doesn’t have any warships around it?”
“No, manufacturing blasters without ships to put them on does not represent a danger to us like those others. We’ll visit it later.”
The Third leaned back showing his agreement and for the first time began to doubt the Leader’s wisdom. They should know what they were up against before launching an attack. He was right to feel that way.
• • •
The massive gathering of Blue Warships began organizing into a hundred units. Their targets were sent to them and the Fleet Leaders began assigning vectors for the individual squadrons to attack. The Admiral looked at the Third on his monitor and shook his head, “I don’t like the feel of this.”
“What has you bothered?”
“The beings from that Spiral Galaxy said that this was just an initial probe; we have no idea of the total number of ships the intruders have to use against us. It appears they know they aren’t our equal but they are still planning an assault. That tells me they have superiority in numbers and these planets alone would not be enough to overwhelm us. There have to be more warships we don’t know about.”
“Those planets are located in eight different galaxies; I suspect you might be right.”
“Did you mention this to the Lead Master?”
The Third leaned forward slightly, “No, he was not in a frame of mind to hear it. You know how he is driven to prevent any intrusion into his domain.” The Third hesitated and moved side-to-side, “It would have been dangerous to mention it.”
“I would recommend that you board your ship and stay there for the immediate future.”
“Why?”
“What happens if you poke a grunet’s nest?” The Third stared at the Admiral on his display in silence. The Admiral leaned forward and said, “You’ll kill several hundred at the surface but the thousands that immediately emerge will clean your bones. I suspect that if I’m right, the response from that civilization will be immediate.”
“You know I can’t leave my galaxy.”
“You just
might not have a choice. Make sure you take your family with you.”
“How am I going to get the Master to agree for me to leave the table?”
“Tell him I’ve asked for you to come here and look over my plans. I’ll send the request now. I’ll include that I trust your judgment and want to discuss some issues with you.”
The Third hesitated and said, “Send the message.” The Third went back into the Chamber and the Second said, “Oh, there you are. The Fleet Admiral wants you to come and look at his plans. You should take your ship and go there now.”
The Third leaned forward and then turned and left the Chamber. The Lead Master stared at him but then turned his attention back to the table.
• • •
Dat sat in a chair in the Fleet Conference Room on Earth and watched the feed being sent from the probe that was still located at the Blue Ships Fleets. He shook his head, “They’re organizing to go after the hundred planets that our trackers have reported warships. They should wait and go take a good look at those eight galaxies.”
General Robinson shook his head, “We’re not waiting. I’ve sent every advanced probe we have into those galaxies. We should start receiving information shortly.”
Gresha looked at Brad, “Is that a good idea?”
Katherine looked at Gresha, “Do you think it’s a bad idea?”
Gresha looked around the table, paused at Dat, and then said, “I don’t know if they know our location. If they don’t, we shouldn’t make them suspicious of our presence.”
Admiral Gibbs said, “Their ships aren’t as powerful as the Blue Ships and we know our ships are stronger than theirs. Why would we worry if they did discover us?”
Gresha stared at Gibbs and said, “In Africa, what is the one creature that all other animals fear the most?”
Everyone looked at each other and Gibbs said, “I suspect it would be a Lion or the now extinct Tiger.”
Gresha shook her head, “No, it’s called a Driver Ant.”
Dat said, “You’re talking about Army Ants.”
Gresha nodded, “Everything in the jungle runs from the oncoming wave of ants. They devour everything in their path and no animal or insect is safe from them. They overwhelm everything in their path by sheer numbers.” Gresha looked around the table, “Any of us could easily kill a single ant. It would be extremely simple and even a few hundred don’t really pose a problem. However, none of us would survive a wave of them in the millions. Those creatures know they are no match for the Blue Ships but they’re still planning an attack against the evil carnivores and they all know they will emerge victorious. That tells me more than anything else that we must remain hidden from them until we can build our forces to meet them.” Gresha looked at Katherine, “Have you listened to the sermon being broadcast from that giant temple?” Katherine shook her head. “I have. It’s a call from their religious leaders to never lose sight of the holy mission or removing all carnivores from the universe. If just one of their ships takes a scan of Earth, what do you think they’ll see?”
Gresha waited for an answer and Angel said after a few moments of silence, “They’ll see our livestock.”
Gresha smiled and nodded, “Exactly right; and that would place us on their list of species to eliminate.” Gresha looked around the table, “All of you should listen to that sermon. It’s frightening and horrifying at the same time. They will show no mercy and I really believe they will come in numbers too high to comprehend. This entire species is driven by a collective religious fervor. They will not back off and they don’t care if they die in the conflict. That is a dangerous thing to have to face.”
Leon sat in a chair away from the conference table and he stood up. Katherine looked at him and nodded. “I suspect they already are suspicious of our presence.”
Katherine’s eyebrows went up, “Why do you say that?”
“They encountered two of my species on two different planets. I suspect they will compare the odors and see that the carnivore was on two different planets. Oh they’ll know someone is on to them and they’ll know it isn’t the Pumgas.”
Katherine looked at Brad, “I want a probe sent to those planets where the Rust Fleets are located.”
Brad nodded and began speaking quietly into his wrist unit.
Dat looked at Katherine, “We need to know how we match up against them.”
“Why?”
“We need to know how many ships it’s going to take to defeat them.”
Katherine nodded and said, “I want the Strike Fleet jumped away from our galaxy and to hold station close to a distant galaxy where they cannot be followed back here. If the Yellow Civilization calls for our assistance, we’ll look at sending them in.”
Gresha shook her head, “I wouldn’t advise that, Admiral.”
“I know the danger; however, if what you suspect is real, the more of them we can eliminate with the assistance of the Pumgas the better.”
Dat said, “I worry that if the Pumgas are threatened with extinction that some of their ships might jump here to escape. We need Angel’s fleet to prevent that from happening.” Gresha stared at Dat and then nodded. Dat said, “If the Pumgas fall, we will send in Angel’s fleet at the end to pick a fight. We need to know if we can survive a space battle against their forces. They’ll skip away if things get dicey.”
Dat stared at Gresha and slightly shook his head. She was going to disagree but held her tongue. Katherine looked at Dat and the other Admirals around the table and then looked at Angel, “Take your fleet out into deep space and get them ready.”
Angel nodded and said, “Yes Sir.”
• • •
Gresha cornered Dat after the meeting and said, “We can’t reveal ourselves to them.”
Dat shook his head, “Gresha, we have to know if the Rovers can take part in the fight. I expect Admiral Hull to come up with the same idea shortly and we have to know. If the Rovers can stand toe-to-toe with them, we’ll have twenty million more ships we can use against them. We can also build the Rovers much faster than the Jukeboxes. I refuse to send Rovers in alone against them to see.”
Gresha stared at Dat and slowly started nodding, “You’re right. We have to know. I just hope they don’t track us back to our galaxy.”
“We’ll discuss this with Admiral Hull but, either way, we do have one advantage.”
“What is that?”
“All of the Union’s planets now have the updated force fields. We know they would hold off a Blue Ship Fleet for an extended time; I suspect that time will be longer with the Rust Warships.”
“Not if their numbers are too high.”
“We have more than eighty thousand planets in the Union. If they attack them all, they’ll have to divide their forces and we’ll destroy them piecemeal. If they attack a single planet, we’ll roll in with hit and run tactics. However, I want to avoid that if at all possible. I’ll meet with Katherine later next week after things settle down and see what we should do.”
“The Fleets are getting much better, Dat. I do have confidence that we can make a huge dent in their numbers…whatever those might be.” Dat leaned forward and kissed Gresha and then they turned toward the landing field.
Chapter Fifteen
The Third said, “I don’t think I am going to be allowed to stay here after you jump away.”
“Tell the others that I’m leaving a support fleet to be sent to assist any of our units that are threatened to be overwhelmed. You will receive our reports and decide on where to send it.”
“Would the Master in charge or the Military take offense to this?”
“You out rank him, he’ll say nothing.”
“What’s the real reason for leaving this fleet?”
“If things go bad, you should take the fleet and escape to a distant location and start a new civilization there.”
“I could go to that Spiral Galaxy and request asylum.”
“Do you honestly think they’ll accept a species
that eats other intelligent species?”
The Third swelled with a large breath and said, “No, you’re probably right about that.”
“Just don’t wait until it’s too late. If we’re overwhelmed, get out of here. They won’t be far behind us.”
“Surely you’re not going to stay there and fight them off? You should bring the fleets back here to defend the domain.”
“That is exactly what I’m going to do; however, they will arrive here immediately after we do. Jump the fleet out and don’t look back.”
The Third stared at the Admiral and said, “Thank you, my old friend.”
“Let us hope I’m wrong and it doesn’t come to that. I wish the Leader had taken a closer look.”
“Would it have made a difference?”
“We could have joined forces with the Spiral Galaxy and we might have been in a better situation. We’ll know shortly if I’m right.”
“The Leader would never agree to foreign military forces in our domain.”
“He would if his backside was about to be blasted.”
The Third jerked slightly in laughter, “That would tend to make one look at things differently. Good luck and keep me informed on what’s happening.”
“Just remember, don’t hesitate.”
“I will.”
• • •
“Admiral, I have a disturbing development.”
Katherine looked at Brad, “What?”
“One of our trackers followed a ship to a planet that builds those probes that are being used in the Pumgas’ galaxy.”
“And?”
“The scan revealed more than a billion of them around the planet.” Katherine’s eyes went wide. “If we send some of our ships against them, what do you think they will do, Admiral?”
“They’ll launch every one of those probes to go out and search every galaxy in this corner of the universe for the presence of a Jukebox Battleship.”
Brad nodded, “They’ll probably do it anyway due to two Matadors being detected. The point is; if they see a Jukebox, we will be their next target.”
Katherine leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment. “Do you think those probes will be looking for carnivores?”
Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time) Page 20