by Saxon Andrew
Kyle looked at the huge wall monitor just above the viewport and saw the entire outer edge of the galaxy was colored purple indicating it was populated by Feeders. Then Nicole stopped coloring the images Willow sent to her panel. Image after image appeared and Nicole shook her head. “What’s going on? Are we too far out for you to sense them in those images?”
“No, I just don’t sense any.”
“Willow?”
“If what she’s seeing is accurate, there are no Feeders in the central core of this galaxy. They’re all located on the outer edges.”
“Why?”
“We should skip in to the core and see if she’s missing them.”
“Amber, pick a star close to the core.”
“Got one.”
Kyle pressed the light drive and the ship disappeared. It entered normal space outside a planetary system circling a Red Giant Star. He quickly turned around and looked at Nicole. She was shaking her head. “Willow?”
“There is a civilization in this system and they’re not feeders.”
“Why haven’t the Feeders conquered them?”
“I have no idea.”
“Why didn’t the linked Feeders see us?”
“I’m going to suggest something and I hope you don’t think I’m crazy.”
Kyle looked at Nicole and said, “Go ahead, Willow”
“We know the Feeders don’t like coming into contact with each other. We’ve heard several of them say it.”
“Yeah, so?”
“The Feeders in this galaxy are constantly linked and all of their attention is directed at the center of this galaxy. That’s why they didn’t see us outside the edge.”
“Why would they be…” Suddenly, Kyle saw it. “They’re keeping something trapped inside the central core.”
“That’s what I believe, Kyle. There’s something in the center of this galaxy that is a huge danger to the Feeders. They have to stay linked to keep it contained. I’m also hearing the Feeders discussing a disturbance near a Red Giant.”
“Does that mean they see us?”
“They don’t know what it is. I’m adding power to the force field.”
Kyle gripped the arms of his command chair and, after a minute, Willow said, “The increased power to the thought blocking system has caused them to lose us.” Kyle blew out a breath and quit squeezing the arms on his chair.
“Willow, will the increase in power to our force field make us visible to the civilization in this system?”
“The Dark Cloud still surrounds the ship…Amber, extend the antenna for a moment and take a look around us.” Kyle waited and an instant later, the Light Ship suddenly appeared a thousand light years outside the galaxy.
“What’s going on, Amber!” Kyle saw his monitor illuminate and his eyes flew wide open. A huge wave of Black and Silver colored ships was moving toward them at incredible speed. They would have been on top of them in just a few more moments.
“Sorry, Kyle. I couldn’t wait to tell you.”
“That’s alright! Thank God, you reacted fast enough!”
“I dropped a Micro-probe in the barrier before I fled the scene. I’m getting the images now.” Kyle looked up at the wall monitor and saw thousands of giant warships swarming the area they had just skipped out of. “Those ship’s force fields are just as strong as ours. I can’t really make sense of the things on their hulls. They have to be some kind of weapon.”
Kyle watched the monitor and the huge ships backed away from the area and ten of them swept some kind of bright blue beam through it. Kyle’s visor dimmed at the brilliance of the beams and the probes feed went dark for an instant. It came back on line and Kyle shook his head, “What kind of energy was that?”
“GET THE PROBE OUT OF THERE NOW!!”
Kyle winced at the volume and Amber said, “I’ve moved it. What’s going on, Willow?”
“Those ships have activated their scanners and we can’t risk them seeing that probe in the barrier.”
“Why not?”
“Kyle, those ships are more technologically advanced than the Alliance and the beings on them make the Feeders look like kittens.”
“What?”
“I turned off my telepath system until Amber extended the antenna. I listened for a moment and then shut it down instantly when I heard a brief series of thoughts from those ships. Those beings are evil in the worst possible way. They will eradicate any civilization they can find just for the enjoyment of doing it. If they discover the barrier, they’ll skip out of here and get outside the ring of Feeders holding them in the core.”
“What were their thoughts like?”
“Rage and anger toward the universe. They long to kill and the more species they can attack, the more they like it. They rage at the Feeders for keeping them imprisoned in this galaxy. They’ve killed every living being in the core and long to take their killing to other galaxies.”
“Oh that’s just great!”
Nicole looked at Kyle, “Why do you say that?”
“What happens if we do somehow manage to kill all the Feeders? What happens here if we do?”
“Trust me on this one, Kyle. The Feeders are nothing compared to the savagery of what I heard in those being’s thoughts.”
Nicole looked at her panel, “I wonder how many of them there are locked up in the core.”
“I think I have an answer to that.” Kyle and Nicole looked up as Amber said, “As the probe skipped out, it took images of the space it flew through. This one is interesting. I’m going to put it on the image of the galaxy.” The image of the galaxy appeared and the huge purple colored outer edge appeared. Two hundred light years inside the purple border, a bright silver border appeared. The view moved in at incredible speed and they saw vast fleets of the Black and Silver Ships in formation.
“How many?”
“I estimate more than two billion, Kyle.”
Nicole shook her head, “If they find their way out of this galaxy, they’ll probably attack the Feeders. We may have a very long time before they show up at the Alliance.”
Kyle shook his head, “No, they will get out of Feeder space faster than you can imagine to avoid being captured again. If we can assume Feeder Space is beyond this galaxy in the direction we were traveling, then they will run toward the direction of the Alliance. There’s no way the Feeders can catch them if they escape, their ships aren’t fast enough.” Kyle looked at Nicole, “If the Feeders chase them, they’ll follow them all the away to our civilization.”
“So what do we do about this?”
“Now we have to learn how to kill two different species before we can start taking either of them on. Our job just got a great deal harder.”
“Willow, thanks for keeping us out of trouble.”
“You’re welcome; what do you want to do now?”
“Amber, put that first Transport’s light signature on my panel. We still need to see what we’re facing with the Feeders.” Kyle saw the code appear and he pressed the light drive leaving the nightmare galaxy behind.”
• • •
The Light Ship entered normal space and Amber extended the antenna. The transport was above a planet it was sending shuttles down to the surface. “Where are we?”
“We’re in a galaxy about a million light years toward the Alliance from that last galaxy.”
“Nicole, can you sense them?”
“There are more of them here than the last galaxy.”
“Then we can assume this galaxy has been conquered long ago by the Feeders. Amber, I want you to start moving from galaxy to galaxy and let’s see how many are populated by Feeders. Nicole, when we enter normal space, tell Willow what you sense and she’ll plot it on a star map. Amber, start skipping.”
“Before we start that process, we should do something else.”
“What is that, Willow?”
“We need to determine if the galaxies we’re plotting have warships in them. This galaxy poses no danger to us
because the Feeders here have no ships to come and attack us. Nicole, can you sense them in ships versus living on planets?”
“I believe so. I don’t sense any ships in this galaxy.”
Kyle had a sudden thought, “Did you sense any ships in that nightmare galaxy?”
“I did but they were all in orbit above planets. Why is that important?”
“I believe the Feeders must get in their ships and occasionally push those monsters back into the core.”
“Why don’t they just go in and kill them?”
“I don’t really know. Something must be operating to prevent it.”
“Could it be the gravity of the central black hole disrupts their link?”
“What?”
“I don’t know, it’s the only thing different from the rest of the galaxy.”
“Willow, is what Nicole’s suggesting possible?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know if a large black hole would disrupt thoughts.”
“That’s something we need to check out. Nicole, did that thought come from somewhere else?” Nicole focused for a moment, looked at Kyle, and nodded.
“Kyle, I’ve done some analysis of the weapons used by the Creatures in the Core and it appears the beams they used are gravity generated.”
“Gravity beams?”
“That’s what I see. We’ll have to turn this recording over to our scientists and see what they can determine.”
“Get the information in a light probe and send it out now.” Kyle looked at Nicole, “Are you ready?”
“I am.”
Kyle felt a bump and knew the light probe had skipped out. He pressed the light drive and the ship appeared outside the edge of another galaxy.
• • •
The First Eater hated his position. He knew he was being punished by the Great Eaters for some unknown sin and he hoped they would relieve him of this dismal assignment soon. He detested having to stay linked to the billions of his species to keep the Beasts pinned in this galaxy. This punishment was too much. He couldn’t figure out what he did to cause this punishment.
He looked into the core and saw the Beasts were firing their weapons at the space where he had detected a disturbance earlier. He focused on them and watched closely but nothing appeared to happen. They swept that area of space with their weapons and nothing exploded or gave any indication of something being there. Hummm…they detected something as well. He thought about the disturbance and tried to determine if it were caused by thoughts or something else. He shook his head and looked at the billions of Beast Warships that had slowly moved closer to the borders of his territory. He blew out a breath and ordered the forces on the planets to move into their ships. The Beasts would need to be taught again that they should stay away. He hoped he was able to kill enough of them this time so they would delay their next move.
He wished he could capture one of their vessels but they always self-destructed before he could. They must have a system that sensed when every being on board was dead. If he could present one of their warships to the Great Eaters, they may release him from this hell.
Ummm…could he leave some of them alive, but brain dead, and take one of their ships? He decided to see if it were possible. The Fleets would be ready to move in toward the core in a week. He’d try it and see what happened. He sent the thought out that all of his species would join the link in seven days and no one would be allowed to avoid it. Now, which of those warships was he going to focus on taking?
• • •
Two weeks passed and every galaxy they checked was populated by Feeders. Kyle sat in his chair and was starting to feel depressed. More than a thousand galaxies examined and all of them Feeder controlled.
“Kyle.”
“Yes, Willow.”
“I’ve been thinking about those creatures that used the gravity beam.”
“And?”
“I’m of the opinion they may not be the problem we think.”
Kyle sat up straight in his chair, “Share your thoughts with me.”
“Well, what could a gravity beam do to harm a warship?”
“What do you mean?”
“What kind of damage could it do to a ship?”
Kyle thought for a moment and leaned back in his chair, “Well, it could cause all the atoms in the hull where it hit to instantly collapse in on each other and cause a huge hole.”
“That’s one thing.”
“Or it could cause the bonds that hold the atoms together to release and allow the matter to fall apart.”
“That’s close to what our disruptors do.”
“It is.”
“Did you factor in the silver hulls on our ships?” Kyle’s eyes narrowed and then opened wide. “I see you see it. The material our hulls are made of push away from high gravity. It can withstand the power of a black hole and I’m willing to wager those beams are nowhere near as powerful as the gravity of a large black hole. Our silver hull material can withstand the black hole in the center of Andromeda and I just don’t see how those beams could really damage our ships.”
“Our force fields might not stand up to them.”
“Who needs a force field if the ship’s hull can’t be damaged?”
“The thought blocking feature the force field provides could be knocked out and the linked Feeders would sense us.”
“There is that, however, our major concern has been what will happen if the black and silver ships escape the galaxy they’re trapped in. The real question we need answered is whether or not their ships could withstand our disruptors.”
“We have to find out.”
“Not now! That’s an issue to be handled after we’re able to take on the Feeders. Before we make that effort, we should find out the scope of their territory.”
Kyle looked at Nicole and saw she heard the exchange. “What do you think?”
“I agree with Willow.”
Kyle started nodding slowly and looked at his monitor, “We’re wasting time doing this. Amber, I want you to start skipping a hundred galaxies in each skip until we arrive at the end of Feeder Territory. Let’s see how far they live from here.”
“The next signature is on your panel.”
Kyle pressed the light drive four times before they arrived at a galaxy that was being attacked by a Feeder Fleet. He moved the Light Ship toward universal west and began encountering Feeder Fleets along his path. After ten fleets were plotted, they entered space where Nicole could not sense the close presence of Feeders. “Now I know why they’ve not come to the Alliance.”
Nicole nodded, “They’re growing their territory one galaxy at a time. They must think that they will eventually arrive where they found the Legends and are in no hurry to get there.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that?”
Kyle looked up, “Why not Willow?”
“Because the Feeders that fought with the Legends learned about a very powerful telepathic species in that part of the universe. You saw how that Feeder Fleet Leader refused to destroy the planet of telepaths and deprive him of a really good meal. I suspect they have independent fleets that will seek out any species that is telepathic.”
“Why haven’t they come before now?”
“Perhaps those fleets have a full dance card. I don’t know but don’t assume you have unlimited time to prepare. However, you must ask yourself why were there Feeders helping the Legends? If they stayed in their space simply expanding it at the edges, why were they with the Legends? Could they have been scouts looking for strongly telepathic species? The Legends are telepathic but tasted awful to Feeders. Some of those Feeders learned about the Goran during that conflict. There very well could be a fleet of Feeders following up on those contacts and just haven’t arrived at our space…yet.”
Kyle sighed and said, “Amber, skip us back and let’s see where the other end of Feeder Space stops.” A week later, they had a working star map of where the Feeders lived.
Chapter Thirteen
/> “Admiral Norden, I have received a message from one of our Fleets in the Coma Cluster.”
“What’s the message?”
“One of our Light Ships have found an advanced civilization that is gathering a huge fleet around one of its planets. It appears it is going to go out and attack other intelligent species and take their worlds.”
“How advanced is this civilization?”
“The Pilot says it’s close to our level of technology.”
“See if the Pilot can find out if this is the first time that planet has attacked other civilizations. Have another Light Ship go out and join him before he starts his investigation.”
“I’ll send the message.”
“Kelly, begin setting up a plan to send our fleets if the situation demands it.”
“I’ve already have my computers working on it.”
Eric’s panel went dark and he wondered if the scouts had actually found a real danger to the Alliance lurking in the Coma Cluster. He pressed a button on his console, “Admiral, we may have found a Red Flag in the Coma Cluster.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’m having the pilot that found it investigating now. I’ll send you what he uncovers.”
“Let me know as soon as possible.”
“Yes Sir.”
Clarissa sighed and went back to her Light Ship that was hovering over the beach. Just when she chose to take a short vacation, this happens. Oh well.
• • •
“Hey, Poncho, I hear you’ve opened a can of whoopass.”
“Cisco, what are you doing here?”
“Fleet has ordered me to come and join you. It appears they want more information on the civilization you’ve found.”
“What more do they need? This civilization is like a bunch of angry hornets going out to sting the crap out of anyone they encounter.”