Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (22 page)

Cade and John went to the video and measured the speed of the new plant missiles. Cade said, “It looks like our hornets are slightly faster than the new missile.”

“They can also maneuver faster than the missile because of less mass to change direction,” John said. “They would be effective as an anti-missile weapon. They don’t have long range capability but could protect our ships if the new missile gets closer than a hundred miles.”

Cade looked at the clock and said, “It’s going to be a long night, call the entire team in and let’s get this moving. Dorg’s command team wants an answer is five days and I want to have this on a ship for trial in four days. Get moving, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

The Algean Fleet Leader watched his display at the elements of his fleet as they sorted themselves out into their squadrons. An explorer had discovered a high technology planet and had sent its coordinates to fleet command. His fleet had the new ships and missiles and any discovery of a world with advanced technology meant that he was the one chosen to investigate. The explorer had remained at the null band so as not to get trapped inside by one of the stranger’s ships since there were no frequency vessels to prevent them from jumping to attack. So far nothing had happened and the fleet began moving uneventfully toward the planet after setting up the frequency generating ships.

“Fleet Leader, there is a battle going on at the planet.” The sensor tool paused and said, “I do not recognize any of the ship types involved in the conflict.”

“How many ships are there involved?”

‘Sensors indicate more than 50,000. There are also ground installations firing at the ships in orbit. It appears the planetary forces are losing this battle and the attacker’s ships heavily outnumber the other. They appear to be using conventional laser and projectile weapons.”

The Fleet Leader smiled; the planet was lush and green with huge land masses. The Common was suffering due to the loss of the harvested food sources from the planet the strangers had defended and here was a possible replacement for it. Then he had an idea. “The ships that are attacking the planet are to be allowed to escape. Have tracking ships at the null band to follow them back to their source. Maybe we can get two food sources from this.”

The huge Algean fleet moved in quickly toward the Planet feeling its hunger. Five hours out from the planet, the attacking ships stopped firing at the planet and remained in orbit. Ten ships left the planet and accelerated toward the incoming fleet. “Destroy them quickly. I want the others to run home,” The fleet leader commanded. “Also notify all ships that no power missiles are to be used on the planet. Only conventional missiles will be used in this conflict.”

The ten ships arrived at the Algean Fleet and started firing their lasers that didn’t make it thru the first force field of the incoming ships. The Algean ships fired and missiles weren’t needed. All ten ships were blown apart in expanding explosions. The invading ships at the planet turned and flew out toward the null band away from the incoming fleet. The Sensor Leader noticed that they could catch those ships easily but chased them at 1/3 speed to make sure they escaped.

The planets inhabitants saw the attackers of their world flee and began celebrating their rescue by the huge fleet coming their way. The planet had been fighting a war with the invaders for fifty cycles of their sun. They knew that they would have lost had not these new ships arrived and they began broadcasting their welcome and thankfulness to the rescuers for their timely arrival. It was six hours later when the first Algean troop ships began landing on their planet and the giant harvesting ships were seen moving in from the outer system that the inhabitants realized that they had not been rescued but made to face a brand new horror that even the old invaders would have been hard pressed to beat. The inhabitants faced a green horde that consumed all it touched and this time there was no one coming to save them.

The Fleet Leader looked at his Sensor Tool and asked, “Were we able to follow the ones that escaped?”

“Yes, Fleet Leader; they led us to another planet that is a giant food source for the common. I have the coordinates in our data.”

“We will finish here first. We must make sure the Strangers don’t come and try to prevent our harvesting. After we finish, then we will take the other world.”

The Elders on the Home world were faced with a dilemma. They had spread their fleet out to look for the Strangers but here was a bonanza of two food sources found. Do they leave their fleets spread out or do they defend their newly discovered food sources?

‘What are the chances that they will attack while we are harvesting the food source?” one of the middle Elders asked.

“The Eldest replied, “You need only look at when they attacked last time; we were in the middle of our harvest. If we take our new ships to look for the strangers then you have seen what they can do to our old vessels if they attack us while we are harvesting. We could lose our harvest again and the common is running short of food reserves. We have to delay our search until these two are done.”

All of the Elders swayed and could feel the hunger of the masses on their world; all agreed to delay the search for the Strangers. The Algean Fleet settled down around the planet like a lion over a fresh kill to keep it from the hyenas and vultures. The Stars Realm had been given more time but these two worlds were doomed.

Tag was sitting in the main library studying the videos that had been collected from the battles with the Algean fleets. He watched the recording of the new faster anti-matter missiles as they destroyed Admiral Smith’s fleet. “We got too close,” Tag thought. “We had no choice; their screens were too strong further out.” He had talked with McAllister and learned of the new small needles that his group felt would be more effective from twice the range but they would only work on the newest Plant ships. He pulled up a picture of a Plant Soldier to see if there was anything about them physically that could help him understand why they were so voracious. He was staring at the picture when Danielle walked in carrying Rose on her way to bed.

“Say goodnight to Daddy, Rose.” Tag stood up to kiss her goodnight when Rose saw the picture of the Plant Soldier on Tag’s display. She said, “Bad weed is killing people.”

Tag turned and saw what she was looking at and quickly turned off the display. He said, “They’re not killing anyone right now, Darling, you’re safe here with us.”

Rose looked at him with those eyes that seemed to penetrate right to your soul and said, “Yes they are Daddy. They’re killing a world of people right now.”

Tag and Danielle looked at each other and Danielle looked at Rose and said, “Darling, you don’t know that. It’s just your imagination.”

Rose looked at her mother and said, “Can I show you?”

Tag looked at his daughter and said, “Why don’t you show us both, Rose.”

“I’ll have to show you my mind pictures in your mind, is that all right?”

“Yes, Darling, go ahead,” Danielle said.

Suddenly Tag and Danielle were at the planet that the Algeans were attacking and they saw the hundreds of thousands of ships around a planet with flashes of combat on the surface. They saw the huge harvesters moving in toward the planet and they could sense the inhabitants dying by the thousands.”

Tag took her from Danielle and said, “When did you see this?”

She looked at the now blank display and said, “When I saw it on your picture, I could see them attacking those people.”

Tag looked at Danielle and said, “She can see them. Rose, you should quit looking at that planet. It isn’t something that you can understand yet.”

Rose got a very serious look on her face, an expression that Danielle called her big girl expression and said, “I know that they are mean and kill everyone they can. I’ve seen them before when Uncle Kosiev was fighting them. They are the reason he is no longer able to visit me.”

Danielle said, “This is awful, Tag. What can we do to help those people?”

Tag just stood there amazed by his daughter but also confused about anything that they could do to help. There was no clue as to where Rose was seeing her vision. Then Rose said something that shocked them both. “When they finish with that world, they are going after another world right there.” And she pointed at the map of galaxies on the wall.

Tag and Danielle looked at the map and then back at their daughter. Danielle said, “Tag do you remember the mobile over her crib that matched the location of all the planets and moons in Ross’s solar system.” Tag frowned and Danielle followed with, “You remember, we sent it back to Ross to hang in the Fleet Academy. It still follows all the planets accurately.”

Tag said, “Yes, I remember.”

“Tag, she had to be able to see that system in order to make that happen. She can see other stars even as a baby.”

Rose said, “I’m not a baby, Mom.”

Danielle hugged Rose and said, “No you’re not; you’re my big girl.” Rose smiled and hugged her back.

Tag said, “Rose, let me show you how to move around this map and make sections of the map grow larger.” He showed her the control knob and how to move the cursor to where she wanted to look. “Where are the planets you’re talking about, honey?”

Rose said, “That’s too hard, Daddy. Do you care if I do it my way?”

“No, Darling, do it your way.”

Rose walked over to the control table and looked at the maps on the wall. The cursor moved to the Plants galaxy on the map with no one touching the controls. Then an area on the map under the cursor grew larger until a star appeared in the center of the display. Rose said, “That is where they are now.”

Tag took the cursor and locked in the coordinates. Then the cursor moved again and stopped at another star. “That is where they are going next.”

Tag noted the position of the cursor each time and wrote the coordinates down. Tag looked at Danielle and then said, “Rose, it’s past your bed time. Do you want Mommy to fly you up to your room like a space pilot and put you to bed?”

Rose giggled and jumped into her mother’s arms and said, “Yes, pleeeese. I love it when Mommy does that.”

Danielle gave Tag a look that said she would discuss this later and then hugged her little girl as she ran away toward the stairs with Rose laughing all the way.

Tag hit his com and said, “Mikado and Dorg, I need you on Ross immediately and bring your staffs with you.” Dorg and Mikado looked at Tag on his display with questioning expressions. “The Plants are attacking another planet as we speak and are going after another one when they finish the first.” Both Admirals said nothing but nodded and the display went blank. Tag smiled and thought, “Leila had a good idea about direct links to his commanders bypassing normal channels.” Then he sat down and started thinking about his daughter and what he had witnessed. “She’s four and she sees other galaxies.” Tag wasn’t sure just what he felt but he knew the surprises were not over yet. “She’s only four,” he thought again.

T
ag along with Dorg, Mikado, Chen, and Kelly sat at a table with Cade McAllister and his chief engineer. Tag explained that the Plants were attacking another planet and had a second lined up after they finished the first one. He told the group that he wanted ships that could attack and survive against the new Plant ships. “I want to go to this planet they are attacking and make things difficult for them. The longer we can tie them down at that planet gives us more time to prepare our ships to fight them.”

Cade began explaining the modifications they had made to one of the megaships. “We have changed the beams on the ship to focused beams only three feet wide.”

Dorg interrupted and said, “Why would you do that,” but Tag said, “Give him a minute and I’m sure he’ll explain.”

Dorg sat back and waited for an answer but showed he was skeptical of the change. Cade continued and said, “We have also taken the hornets out of the penetrators and have modified each Coronado Power Cell on the hull to have a wide range of independent action.” Even Tag raised his eyebrows at that statement.

Cade shrugged and said, “The Mega Ships are the wrong ships to fight the new Algean fleet but they are all we currently possess. The Algeans built an entirely new ship to take away our advantages and then produced half a million of them. Our problem is that they still have millions of the old models and it’s difficult for us to built two different ships in the quantities necessary to fight both types. We need the Megas to fight the old models but we are going to attempt to modify some of them to handle the new Algean ships.”

Then Chief engineer Anita Lea said, “I know you think that three foot beams and penetrators with no hornets make no sense and in the old fights hornets were needed but this new Plant Ship calls for a different approach. The Plants have shrunk their heavy ships anywhere from 20 miles long or seven miles long into a ship only two miles long. The new ship is faster than their old heavies yet it carries almost as many missile and beam ports as the old vessel it replaces. That is their weakness.”

Dorg said, “How can that be a weakness? They’re faster, have just as many weapons, and with five screens each as strong as the one it had before.”