Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (28 page)

“Forty five minutes sir.”

“Notify all ships we will be jumping to system five in one minute; also notify them to eject the appropriate number of penetrators. It won’t be a long party, gentlemen, but it should be a loud one.”

Chen and Mikado got on their coms and began issuing orders. Tag sat back in his chair and noticed that the bad feeling had disappeared. Thank God for my daughter, she’s the strongest weapon we have and she’s not even seven yet. He smiled and thought, “Love will find a way.”

Rose thought back to him, “And I love you, too, Daddy.”

Tag smiled and watched the countdown.

The Leader of the New Half Fleet watched as the harvesters approached the bulge of the power missiles. His sensor officer looked up and said, “There are no Stranger ships on my screen, leader.”

“Are the two whole fleets ready to jump as soon as we detect them?”

“Yes they are, Leader. Do you think the Strangers will come?”

“Oh, they’ll come. When they do all our ships in this system and the two whole fleets will jump in on top of them and hit them with beams so they can’t escape. We need to capture one of their ships to see how they are able to do the things we’ve seen.”

“Why don’t we have the two whole fleets here waiting on them?”

‘Because then they wouldn’t come. Somehow they are able to see us and I want to make sure they come.”

“Well, if they are coming, they should be arriving now; the harvesting ships are only moments from the jump limit.”

The Half Fleet Leader started to respond but his sensor tool said, “Thousands of ships breaking into normal space just outside the null band.”

“Order the two whole fleets to jump,” the Half fleet Leader ordered and then looked at the screen where he saw thousands of the Stranger’s ships break into normal space and fire millions of those energy missiles. Then as soon as they appeared they jumped away.”

Right behind the Strangers disappearance, the two whole fleets emerged from null space. “Order them to follow the jump tracks.”

“They all left on the same track, Leader.”

“All the better, maybe we can get them in a group, go after them now.”

Two hundred thousand ships read the jump track of the Stars Realm fleet and jumped after them. They broke into normal space and were immediately hit by thousands of penetrators waiting on them. The next jump track was read and the ships jumped to the new coordinates but not before losing more than 35,000 ships. The Plant fleet once more emerged into normal space and once more was barraged by 300,000 penetrators. These penetrators were programmed to hit with five per target and the Algean ships jumped right into the middle of them. The Ship Leader hurried his sensor tool to quickly read the jump track and follow but it took four seconds to read and then transmit it to the other ships. This time the number of ships chasing the Strangers was reduced another 50,000 ships. Once more they emerged into normal space in the middle of another 300,000 penetrators and again the fleet was reduced another 47,000 ships. This process was repeated a fourth time and the original 200,000 ships were down to 60,000 ships. The Ship leader ordered his surviving ships to jump back to the main fleet and discontinue the chase. He had no idea how many more traps were set but it was foolish to continue the loss of his fleet. He reported to the Half Fleet Leader and sent a video of what had happened. The Half Fleet Leader slammed his arm on his console breaking his new display screen. It was just not worth the price to pursue the Stranger’s ships. The Algeans were no closer to finding out where the Strangers were coming from.

The Stars Realm Ship Short Sword broke into normal space and Tresk looked at his jump officer and said, “Do you detect any Plant ships?”

“No Sir, the screen is clear.”

Tresk, looked over at Cade McAllister and said, “The ship is in your control.”

Cade set the two screens and announced, “We will be jumping 10,000 miles into the jump limit on my mark; ready, execute.” The short sword disappeared and broke back into normal space 10,000 miles inside the jump limit. “Jumping back out on my mark, execute.”

Short Sword emerged back outside the jump limit. Cade then said, “This time we are going to jump in system next to the planet closest to the sun and then jump out of the system to the Gamma Galaxy and begin our trip home. On my mark, execute.” Short sword broke into normal space next to the inner planet, released two stealth sensor buoys, and then jumped out of the system.

Tresk looked at Cade and asked, “Were the plants using their dampening frequency?”

“Yes they were and the system appears to have operated flawlessly. We need to look at our data but we’ll do that when we get back to our labs.

Tresk looked at his jump officer, “Ok, you know the drill. Jump thru four galaxies to erase any jump tracks. Let’s go home.”

At the jump limit, the four million penetrators that were launched by the Stars Realm fleet before jumping away began locking on Algean ships that were just inside the limit and those that were breaking out into normal space. Everywhere ships were being hit by the penetrators as they accelerated to full speed after acquiring a target. As the two fleets began maneuvering to avoid the penetrators, more than a million hornets homed in on the anti-matter missiles that were in the bulge that was formed for the harvesters to escape. As the hornets began hitting the missiles, a huge chain reaction of explosions began and the blast zone expanded instantly to more than 4,000 miles wide and engulfed the harvesters, which had not quite made it to the jump limit with 20,000 of the new Algean ships that were escorting them out of the system. There was nothing left of those ships after the blast wave passed them and the explosions continued as the hornets continued to chase and hit the missiles trying to escape the wave front. The Half fleet Leader watched as his ships were being destroyed by the thousands but even more serious than that was the loss of the second group of harvesters to the strangers. In hindsight, using the missiles was not a good decision and he worried that the loss would cost him his command.

On a moon circling the inner planet on the other side of the sun, an Algean Installation buried beneath the surface recorded the emergence of Short Sword as it entered normal space and then its jump back into null space. An Algean shuttle lifted and flew quickly to the jump point and attempted to read the jump track but came up with nothing. The pilot of the shuttle contacted the Half Fleet Leader and reported what had happened. The Half Fleet Leader watched the display showing the Stranger’s Ship as it jumped in and back out.

“Were you able to get a reading on their line of departure?” he asked the shuttle pilot.

“”No, Fleet Leader, I arrived too late and the track was gone. I recorded no reading at the jump point.”

The Half Fleet Leader pondered what he was seeing and then contacted the Elder Leaders on the home world. “Eldest Leader, it appears the strangers have found a way to defeat our dampening frequency. I believe that the attack at the null band on the harvesting ships was a diversion to test their new Star Drive. We have also lost the second group of harvesters from the food source.”

The Elders started swaying and the Eldest said, “Fleet Leader, what is your plan to protect the food source you are currently harvesting. It is unacceptable to continue to lose our harvest to the Strangers. How are you going to stop them?”

The Half Fleet Leader knew his future rested in the balance of his answer. “Eldest, we will station the two full fleets completely around the food source planet with spacing such that anything coming out of null space will have more than five ships firing power missiles at the emergence. The only place the Strangers can approach the system is outside the formation of our ships. We will use a third whole fleet to escort the harvesters to their jump. I recognize that they have tied up more than three whole fleets but this food source is worth it. Even with the loss of the first two groups of harvesters, we have not touched more than ninety five percent of the planets food. No other food source has as much to offer as this one. We will use what we have an advantage in, numbers. Even if they can jump into the system, they will have to do it outside our ships and we will have enough missiles on station around our formations to force them to stay away from us. We will also place our ships such that the heavy ships are on the outer edge. We will use their beams to destroy the weapons they might launch at us. We should have enough to completely cover any approach to our fleet.”

The Eldest stood still and then said, “Make sure your plan works, Fleet Leader.”

Tag was sitting in his office with Cade McAllister looking out over the rapidly growing city that has sprung up after Danielle had announced that Ross was to be the Stars Realm Capital. The population had grown swiftly and in the last five years had grown to more than a billion. Every race in the Ream had some of their citizens living there and the planet was becoming a model for the other members of the Realm to emulate. It was also the home of the Fleet Academy and it also became the center for weapon development since it was the academy that their use would be taught.

The fleet had arrived from the attack on the Algeans a week before and Tag had isolated himself from the military and had stayed in his study pondering the next action to be taken. He called Cade in an hour ago and he had promptly dropped what he was doing and went to Castle Gardner.

Tag looked at Cade and asked, “How did the new star drive work in the Plant system?”

“Both jumps worked perfectly, Mr. Gardner, they went off like clockwork.”

“I want to show you a video, Cade, that I received a day after we arrived home from the attack. I think you’ll find it interesting.” Tag then played the video from one of the stealth buoys that Tresk’s ship had dropped in the Plant harvesting system while making the two jumps. Cade saw Short Sword come out of a jump close to one of the inner planets of the system and then jump away. “Here’s the interesting part,” Tag said. Cade continued to watch and he saw a Plant Shuttle lift off one of the planets moons and fly quickly to the sight of the jump. Cade was shocked.

“Sir, our sensors did not show anything of Algean activity.”

“I know,” Tag said. “The Plants have an installation buried under the surface of that moon. With its high metal content, your sensors would not see it. It is now a certainty that the Plants know that we have found a way around their dampening field which leads me to believe that is why they changed their tactics after we left.”

“What changes did they make, Sir?”

“Take a look at the current feed we’re getting from our probe,” Tag said.

A picture of the system being harvested was on Tag’s display showing the planet that was being attacked surrounded by what looked like millions of ships evenly spaced around it out to 100,000 miles; outside the ships was a band of anti-matter missiles also evenly spaced encircling the plant ships. “Cade, there are more than a billion anti-matter missiles in that formation and the spacing between those ships means that any ship that jumps into their formation would be hit by five to ten anti-matter missiles as soon as it emerged from null space.”

Cade was speechless. “One more thing,” Tag said. “I’ve had a thought about your new star drive. Have you tried it in a small ship with a standard screen to see if it could jump inside the jump limit?”

“No Sir, why do you ask?”

“I have a feeling about the new drive that bothers me. What would happen if the Plants discovered the frequency of null space; could they then jump inside the jump limit from null space? Right now they can’t because they don’t have power cell technology. Would this new technique give them the means to jump inside the jump limit?”

Cade had a quick nightmare about that possibility. “I don’t know but I’ll find out quickly. Give me one day and I’ll let you know tomorrow.” Tag nodded and Cade left the room quickly.

The next day Cade was back in Tag’s study. “You were right, Mr. Gardner, using the null space resonance frequency allows any ship to be kicked out to whatever coordinates their second screen uses. Ships no longer have to use the larger power cells to reduce the effect of gravity to jump inside the jump limit. If the plants acquired this knowledge then they would be unstoppable.”

Tag looked at Cade for a long moment and then said, “I don’t think they know what we did when you jumped into that system. I timed how long it took that shuttle to get to your jump point and it was twelve minutes. If it read anything, it would read no resonance, which will cause them to think that we can now mask our star drive tracks or that they just arrived too late to get the reading. Our probe doesn’t show any of their ships being taken off line to change their drives so I think we’re safe at this point. However, we cannot use the new star drive system because we can’t run the risk of the Plants discovering it.”

“So we’re back where we started,” Cade said.

“Yes we are. I’ve asked our analysts how long it is going to take the Plants to harvest that planet and they say that it will probably take them five years.” Cade furrowed his brow and Tag said, “That planet has very small oceans and a huge amount of land mass; the amount of organic life is huge. They will have to keep a large number of their ships in the defensive formations and out of the harvesting activities. It would be suicide to try and attack that planet. Since we cannot jump into the system, we would have to fly 8 hours to get to their fleet. I’m sure that the plants would also jump a fleet in behind us. We are going to take the time they are harvesting the planet to work on our weapons. The Plants are also going to attack another planet after they finish the one they’re harvesting which means if we can keep them occupied with long range attacks we will probably have more than eight years before they move on to another planet. I want some long range weapons we can fire from the jump limit at their ships so I can remind them that we are still here and force them to keep all those ships in that system. You and your team have to find us the tools to win this fight, Cade.”