by Saxon Andrew
Gary stared at Abby and said, “I’ll never be as smart as you.”
“And I’ll never fly a ship like you do. You should be thankful.”
“Why!?”
“Being smart isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’d gladly trade talents with you anytime. Besides, those of us that are smart need those that aren’t as smart to show us how to live.”
Gary stared at her and started slowly shaking his head. Suddenly, Abby was in his arms with her arms around his neck kissing him. The ever present pain disappeared and Gary held her tight. Abby broke the kiss and said, “Do we continue this charade?”
Gary smiled, “This time you rub my back and I do hope you stay.”
Abby smiled and kissed him again. Abby felt him in her heart and he said, “You are unbelievable.”
Abby smiled and said, “Wait until you see our new toys. Your chair has also been modified with its own gravity suppressor. The ship will no longer have to stay inside the limits of our bodies. The chairs will keep the gravity below two gravities.”
“That’s really good news.”
“We’ve also had a major revision of our weapons.”
Gary turned in the chair, “What have they done?”
“Cole has added an additional reactor. All the blasters except for one on each wing’s front edge and one on each wing tip have been removed.” Gary looked out at the wings and said, “There’s something still there.”
“Those are the new Higgs blasters.”
Gary shook his head, “They run out of power rather quickly. It’s not good tactics to have to keep going FTL to charge the accumulators.”
“Actually, each Higgs blaster has its own scoop on the wing. The Panel of Scientists determined that a dark matter field isn’t necessary to gather the particles. The reason the alien’s force field didn’t stop the particles was because no force field will stop them. Only a dark matter field will stop them but it will not stop a high intensity blast of them. The scoops will collect the Higgs Particles and keep the accumulators charged as long as the ship is moving whether it’s in normal space or FTL.”
Gary nodded, “That is an improvement.”
“And since the reactor no longer has to be used to charge the main blaster’s accumulators, it can have a direct feed to the four blasters remaining.”
“Can they handle that big a load?”
“They can and they’re stronger…much stronger.”
“Why did he bring in another reactor?”
“It will only power the force field. Cole has been experimenting with the FTL missiles and was determined to come up with a way to stop them. That fusion reactor can do it.”
Gary looked up, “G, are you ready to go back to work?”
“More than you know.”
Abby sat in the second chair and said, “Gary, the doctor has forbidden you to engage in combat for another ten days.”
Gary took a breath and said, “You don’t need to worry. I’ll be ready by then.”
Abby reached across and took his hand, “I’m glad you’re back. I’ve missed you.”
Gary smiled, “It’s good to be home.”
Abby smiled and released his hand and pressed a button, “Ian, we’re ready.”
“We’ll be lifting in ten minutes. The stores for an extended stay are currently being loaded and they’ll wrap up in five minutes.”
Gary said, “G, let me know when they leave.”
“Will do.”
Gary looked at Abby and said, “How do you think we should go in, Sir?”
Abby frowned and said, “I thought…”
Gary put a finger over her lips and said, “You were chosen for a reason. That reason was to make sure I don’t do anything stupid and reckless. You know I have that in me. I need you to do what you’re here to do.” He paused and said, “I love you, but I need you to help ground me.”
Abby smiled and said, “First we find Drey and avoid being seen. The order of the day is run.”
Gary smiled as G said, “They’re gone.”
“Lock it up, G. Take us out to the blast panel.”
The two giant ships lifted and started moving out of the hangar. Abby watched their progress and suddenly whipped around and looked at Gary. Gary smiled and said, “I wondered how long it was going to take for that to sink in.”
Abby jumped out of her chair and slowly sat in Gary’s lap. “I’ll move when we’re ready to lift off.”
Just before Gary kissed her he said, “We’ll leave second, G.”
“Second it is.”
• • •
Drey and Andi watched the thousands of ship jump away. Drey shook his head, “And this is probably only half their ships.”
“It’s going to take a long time to even come close to taking them on.”
Doc said, “E and G are back.”
Drey saw Ian and Gary appear on the display and said, “It’s really good to see you. I was afraid for both of you.”
E and Gary said at the same time, “Thanks, Drey.”
Ian said, “What’s going on here?”
Andi said, “They’re headed off to Andromeda to look for us.”
“That’s a giant fleet leaving.”
Drey said, “That’s only half of it. The other half has already left.”
Violet shook her head, “That’s unbelievable.”
Abby looked over and saw Gary frowning. “What’s bothering you?”
The other four looked and saw Gary’s expression. Drey said, “Yeah, what is bothering you?”
Gary leaned back, opened his mouth, closed it, and then said, “It’s probably nothing.”
Ian said, “Tell us. You’ve made me curious.”
Gary sighed and said, “I know I’m not at your mental level and can’t do the analysis of things as quickly but what if they do what we sent them to do?”
Ian leaned back and looked at Drey. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. Abby said, “I’m not sure what you mean, Gary.”
“Well, I’m sure you looked at all the probabilities and I’m just being paranoid, but what if they go there looking for a big, mean, nasty, advanced civilization and find one. Will that civilization follow them back here?”
Gary saw the instant shock on everyone’s face. He looked at Abby and said, “You did look at the possibility?”
Abby looked at Andi and saw her working it out in her head. Andi started shaking her head and her eyes went wide, “Abby, you’re better at this. What do you see?”
“You’ve already seen it.”
“I get the worst possibility at forty percent.”
Abby shook her head, “Did you factor in that Andromeda is twice as large as the Milky Way and has four times as many stars?”
“That’s why you’re better. I didn’t want to consider it with those factors. It gets really scary.”
Abby sighed, “The probability of them finding an advanced civilization is greater than seventy percent. The probability of finding a really advanced civilization is fifty-fifty.”
Drey stared at Abby, “That’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Ian shook his head, “And we just sent an extremely aggressive civilization there. They’ll shoot first and that could cause the worse possible outcome.”
Drey said, “We’ve got to stop them!”
Ian shook his head, “It’s too late. Half of them are already there and attacking those still here won’t bring the others back. It will only convince them they’re on the right track.”
Gary said, “Like I said, I’m not the resident genius here but the tactics are clear.”
Ian sighed heavily, “We have to follow them and attempt to minimize any damage.”
“That’s how I see it.”
Ian looked at the others and said, “We’ll jump to Andromeda. Drey you need to take Doc and get the upgrades done.”
“No way! You can’t possibly cover what they’re doing with only two ships. I’ll take Doc afte
r we check out what’s happening. Besides, we’re there to look, not fight. I caused this and I’m going.”
Ian looked at Gary, “I expect you to cover Doc if things turn bad.”
“I’ll cover him like fur on a cat.”
“I suspect Doc and I can take care of ourselves thank you very much.”
Ian said, “Even so. I want you in continuous contact with G. You got that, Doc?”
“I do, Mission Commander.”
Drey lowered his brows and Ian said, “We depend on you too much to lose you, Drey. I really wish you’d go back and get upgraded.”
Drey shook his head, “This is my doing. I have to be there to see what I’ve done.”
Ian stared at Drey and then said, “E, do you know where those ships are going?”
“They’re jumping to the edge of the galaxy and then jumping in toward the core.”
“Well we’re going to do it differently. We’re going to spread out at the edge and start jumping forward in thousand light year increments. We’ll stop and take a scan for electromagnetic frequencies. If we find some, we’ll notify each other and follow them back to the source. E, Doc, and G will monitor the alien’s communications in the event they find anything. Are there any questions?”
Drey said, “That sounds like a good plan.”
“E, give them the coordinates and stay out of normal space when you arrive.”
Gary saw the coordinates and jumped the ship to the edge of Andromeda. Abby said, “And you say you’re not smart. You saw what we missed entirely.”
Gary shrugged, “I should have said something when Drey mentioned the plan. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“Gary, you’re a High Genetic. There’s not much different in our minds and you’re better than you give yourself credit. The mental computations you do in combat are extraordinary. You shouldn’t hold back on anything.”
Gary looked at Abby and said, “I think you are a tiny bit prejudiced, but thank you for the compliment.”
“You big dummy, that’s not a compliment, it’s the truth.”
Gary quickly looked at Abby and saw her staring at her display. He chuckled and saw that at least her mind thought he was smart. He thought a moment and considered that he might just be smarter than he thought. Abby continued to stare at her display but the corner of her mouth away from Gary went up slightly.
• • •
A week later Abby started to get frustrated, ‘This is the third time we’ve found electronic emissions and had them suddenly die out. This doesn’t make sense.”
Gary looked at the stars ahead and said, “G, is there a G type star ahead of us on this route we’ve been following?”
“There’s one twenty thousand light years directly ahead of us.”
Abby looked at Gary, “What are you thinking?”
“All human life has developed on class G planetary systems. I’m taking an educated guess that if there is a type G one our line, the emissions have a higher probability of originating there.”
“But why have they stopped?”
Gary shrugged, “Something happened twenty thousand years ago.”
Abby stared at Gary, “I really hope it’s not what I’m thinking.”
Gary shook his head slightly, “Buckle in.”
“Hey, no combat.”
“I’m worried about having to run. Buckle in, Abby.” Gary began pushing switches and said, “G, go to full combat power on the blasters and force field. Jump us in to that class G star close to the inner planets. Stay below normal space and run a quick passive scan.”
“Jump in ten seconds. Missiles are activated as well.”
“That’s good, G.” The ship jumped and Gary saw the face of evil.
• • •
The planet had been bombarded from space and nothing on the surface survived. The planet was a huge dust bowl with small patches of green. “G, what can you determine about the civilization that was here.”
“They were primitive. They had discovered electricity and their vehicles ran on petroleum. They did not have flight beyond lighter than air balloons. There’s hundreds of them scattered around the planet.”
Abby stared at the planet and said, “Someone came here and killed everything.”
Gary said, “G, can you get a reading on the blaster burns on the ruins?”
“They were more powerful that the aliens we followed here.”
Gary looked at Abby, “And that was twenty thousand years ago. Imagine where they are now.”
Abby looked up, “They killed the other planets where the emissions suddenly stopped.”
Gary nodded, “The evidence would support that assumption. G, get this out to E and Doc.”
Abby felt immense sorrow at what the beings on the planet must have faced. There was no escape and no way to defend themselves against the horrible beams hitting them from above. She shook her head. G announced, “E is here and Doc will arrive momentarily.”
Ian and Violet appeared on the display and Abby saw Ian’s expression, “This is horrible. This planet couldn’t have done anything to have caused this.”
Gary said, “At least the aliens in our galaxy take prisoners. This one kills everything.”
Doc arrived and Drey said, “I’ve just looked at the data. It looks like our fears are real.”
Abby could only nod.
Gary said, “G, are you hearing anything on any frequency that is not coming from the aliens that came here from our galaxy.”
“Give me a moment and let me scan the entire spectrum.”
E said, “There’s a massive amount of communication taking place in a band that is above anything we’ve ever seen.”
“You’re right, I can hear it now.”
Ian said, “I want all three ships to start working on understanding what is being said. Combine you findings and try to reduce this learning curve. We need to learn what they’re saying.”
“Ian, this language is going to be difficult. There is a huge amount of information in very small bursts.”
“Do the best you can, E.”
Ian looked at Drey, “What do we do now?”
“Well, we know that this planet was attacked.”
Gary said, “There were four others on this path that also suddenly stopped communicating.”
Drey nodded, “That means that whoever did this is ahead of us. We should start jumping forward in fifteen thousand light year increments. I’ll start at five thousand, Ian, you start at ten, and Gary, you start at twenty. We should overlap our searches and continue all the way to the core of the galaxy. If you run in to anything, notify the others.”
Ian looked at the display and said, “Let’s go find the monster. We know it’s out there.” The three ships disappeared.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Admiral sat on the High Councilor’s ship and listened to the reports coming in. That freaking computer had been right again. The last thing it told him was that the probability was high that he would encounter an advanced civilization and that keeping a good distance between it and himself was a very good idea. It took all the diplomacy he possessed to convince the gung ho Councilor to remain at the edge of the galaxy and wait for a discovery. The Councilor finally relented when the Admiral told him that they could arrive at any discovery faster if they jumped in from the edge.
He had started receiving reports that started him worrying. Planets were being found that had been blasted into rubble from space. The data suggested it had happened long ago and the blasters used to do it were more advanced than the ones used by his fleet. This was starting to look ominous. The blaster burns were actually more powerful that the three ships that had attacked his ships. But the Councilor was as happy as a bug in dung at the prospect for returning a hero to a promotion in rank. The computer was right; he was too dumb to realize the danger he was in.
The Admiral decided he was not going to be stupid. “Sire, I need to make a short trip to one of the planets that w
as destroyed.”
“We can just take my ship there.”
“I need a vessel that has the necessary technology to analyze the blast patterns. This ship is too big to land on the planet. And if we do land and discover the alien’s location, we’ll be delayed arriving. I’ll leave my second in command and it should only take a short time. I’m sure the council will have questions about the alien’s capabilities and I don’t want to be unable to have the answers.”
The Councilor smiled, “I guess you saw what happened to your predecessor.”
“I did and that is what motivates me to do this.”
“It’s not good to not have answers. How long will you be gone?”
“It shouldn’t take long. I’ll be right back.”
“Ok, let me know what you find.”
The Admiral left the bridge and had the Ship Destroyer dock with the giant ship. The Admiral boarded and looked at the Commander waiting on him, “Did you do it?”
“It’s in place, Sir.”
“Take us away from this ship and jump us ten light years away from the galaxy’s edge. Send me all the incoming communications.” The Commander nodded and left. The number of destroyed planets had been growing and the Admiral knew the cause of that destruction was not long from being found.
• • •
“Ian.”
“Yes, E.”
“The numbers of destroyed planets are increasing. The aliens are starting to find them on a wide pattern.”
“Where are they?”
“They’re moving around the core and are about to enter a massive globular cluster of stars.”
“Where is that giant ship?”
“It’s out at the edge of the galaxy. The leader is waiting to discover the locals before he jumps in.”
“E, assume the aliens they find are more advanced than we are. Could they be monitoring their communications and know the location of that ship?”
“I can tell from listening to their communications that their computers are advanced enough to do it.”
“I’m not going in to that area. Contact G and Doc and tell them to meet me at that giant ship. We’ll follow it wherever we need to go.”
Violet looked at Ian, “What has you worried?”