Nemesis 1: Revenge Is Best Served Hot (24 page)

Cinny looked at Grant, “What’s going on?”

“It appears Earth is ready to begin its offensive operations against the Raiders.”

Whippet was holding the stump of his left arm screaming in agony as Cinny went to a locker and pulled out a spray can. She sprayed the contents on Whippet’s left arm and he stopped writhing in pain. Cinny said, “How long have you suspected him?”

“From the moment I saw him in that restaurant.”

Whippet’s eyes narrowed, “That’s ludicrous.”

Grant shook his head, “Ana told us that they had put out disinformation to the Raiders to make them focus on finding us. That tells me that her masters could intercept the Raider’s communications. The plan to attack us in that restaurant had to be set up with numerous messages. When the attack on Lovely failed, Earth decided to get someone close to us to prevent us from being killed before we started distracting them. They intercepted the messages informing the Raiders about us being on the planet where we ran into you. They rushed you there and set up the meeting. You were sent there to see if you could join us.”

Whippet looked at Cinny, “There’s no evidence to confirm that; he’s becoming paranoid.”

Cinny looked at Grant, “He does make a point.”

“He led us to the key. He made us see the program was inside the key. He developed tools to shut off the computer’s power. He knew where the chips were located. Do I need to go on?”

“I’m an engineer.”

Grant smiled, “Yes you are but you were an engineer on old commercial vessels. You never had exposure to the modern systems used by current warships. Coming up with devices that would shut off two advanced reactors that did not exist anywhere else in the universe except on this ship and the ships Earth is building pretty much confirmed my suspicions.”

Whippet stared at Grant for a moment and sighed, “What are you going to do?”

“If you answer my questions honestly, I’m going to leave you on the planet of your choice.”

“That isn’t a really good choice.”

Cinny looked at him, “Why not?”

Whippet stared back and forth between them and then shrugged, “Because Earth is going to conquer every civilized planet in the known universe after they remove the Raiders and subjugate them under an iron fist.”

“Why would dropping you off be a bad decision?”

“I have failed at the task they assigned me. Failure means death.”

“What would that button on your panel have done if you pressed it?”

“It would activate a subspace transmitter allowing them to find you wherever you went.”

Grant stared at the Werstag and then said, “I’m dropping you off at the animals’ planet.”

Whippet shrugged, “They will eventually find it. Their ships are more advanced than the Nemesis and it’s only a matter of time until they track a jump drive there.” Whippet looked at his stump, “However, at least it’s not on their star maps. It’s as good as anywhere else.”

Cinny said, “What about that device in your hand?”

“If I didn’t follow their orders, it could be activated through subspace and kill me.” Cinny stared at Whippet with her eyes lowered. Whippet shook his head slowly, “I confess that I really had no problems working for them initially…”

“But…”

“I do like the two of you as well as the animals. I really didn’t have a choice.”

Grant shook his head, “There are always choices. You could have severed your hand after Ana was removed and told us what was going on.”

Whippet tilted his head to the left, “I guess there is that.” He looked at Grant, “Could you have done that?”

Grant stared at him and after a moment nodded, “If it came down to it, I could and would.”

Whippet sighed, “Both of you are much stronger than I.”

Grant looked at him and shook his head, “I really hate I was right about you, but at some level, I can’t bring myself to harm you.”

Whippet held up his stump, “You shot off my hand!”

“What’s the loss of a hand among friends? You are, for the moment, free of all outside pressures.”

“What about those you bring to bear?”

Grant shrugged, “You’re right; I didn’t think about those.” Grant looked up, “Enter the coordinates to the Animals’ Planet. Move us into subspace and keep us there.”

“Moving into subspace.”

Grant looked out and saw the infinite colorless domain around the ship and he fired a small nose thruster. The Nemesis was shoved an incredible distance. Grant turned the ship and fired the thruster four more times before he said, “Jump to the coordinates.” The Nemesis disappeared in an instant.

• • •

The giant crimson colored ship appeared in normal space and the Captain said, “Where is it?”

“Sir, this is the last location of the device we placed in the rat.”

The Captain’s eyes narrowed and the Scan Lieutenant said, “I’ve just detected a jump drive in the distance.”

“Could it be them?”

“It could be anything in eight galaxies.”

“Do you have the location?”

“No Sir, it was too far away.”

The Captain shook his head and pressed his communicator, “Sir, they’re not here.”

“Notify all ships in that quadrant to start a search for them.”

“It will put us behind schedule on dealing with the Raiders.”

“They’re more dangerous than the Raiders. Find them!”

The display went dark and the Captain shrugged, “Initiate a scan for the frequency of their reactor.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

The Nemesis arrived at the Animals’ Planet and his eyes went wide; there were thousands of shuttles hanging in orbit above the planet. Half of them were covered with Spiders. Grant looked at Whippet, “You can ride down with Cinny.” Whippet stood up and walked off the bridge with his shoulders slumped. Cinny shook her head and followed him to the landing bay.

They arrived on the ground and Grant said, “Iggy, where did you acquire all those shuttles?”

“We found a Raider fleet at one of the target planets you found. We used our beams to cut the front and rear of the ships from the landing bay.” Iggy shook his head, “Those landing bays are huge and can hold more than a hundred shuttles.”

“Did you remove the tracking devices?”

“My children did that on the run. They jumped away and removed them as they made numerous jumps.” Grant’s eyes narrowed and Iggy held up one of his front legs, “I know what you’re going to say. I had them make numerous small jumps in subspace before they came here.”

“How did you know to do that?”

“The Ant’s Mother notified us that Earth was starting their attacks.”

“How did she know?”

“They sent a frequency activating a device telling her to kill all of us. She destroyed the device.” Grant shook his head and thought, “If that device had a locator…”

“It did have a locator but one of my children went and showed her what it looked like a week ago. She used one of her newborns to go inside the device and cut the leads to it.”

“Did you just hear my thoughts?”

“No, it was obvious what you were thinking by your expression.”

“I see there are now thousands of Spiders on them.”

“And more are being hatched as we speak. Our Mother knows we’re going to need them to survive.”

“Tell your children that none of them should use a jump drive.”

“They know. We’ve ceased gathering shuttles. Most of them are parked on the moon until we can hatch enough Spiders to cover them.”

“How many do you have?”

“About a hundred thousand. We discovered a jump coordinate on one of the new ones that led us to the planet building them. It was simple to sneak in with enough pilots to take them.”

“How could you have trained that many pilots in such a short time?”

“Most of the Spiders can now hear each other’s thoughts. We had to hold off the Raider Navy for a week and it took numerous trips to gather them all…”

Grant smiled, “But here they are.”

“Yes, and here they’ll stay.”

“Have you made any other plans in our absence?”

“We’ve sent six shuttles out with Crocs and Spiders as well as eggs for new ant mothers. They’ve jumped far away from any of the known civilizations on the Raider’s star maps to find planets for them to start over.”

Grant blew out a breath and sat down on the ground, “Good.”

“What about you? I see that being is missing a hand.”

Grant saw Whippet staring at them and he said, “Accidents happen, Iggy.”

Iggy nodded, “Indeed they do.”

Grant looked at Whippet and saw his thanks expressed on his face, “Iggy, see if you can find a place for Whippet to settle down. He’ll need to stay here for the foreseeable future.”

A Croc came running up and Grant’s eyes narrowed. Iggy smiled, “It appears we are starting to be able to hear each other’s thoughts as well.”

Grant wondered what their creators had made. This was too much of a coincidence. He looked at Iggy, “How far can they hear each other?”

“We’re only able to hear each other here on the planet.” Grant nodded. “However, the Spiders can actually hear each other in distant galaxies.” Grant shook his head. Iggy looked up at the sky, “There doesn’t appear to be a limit to the distance.”

Cinny walked up and Grant smiled. Iggy looked at them and said, “It appears our real enemy is the planet where our species evolved.”

Grant looked at him and nodded. Cinny sat down and pulled Grant’s arm over her shoulders. He pulled her close and thought about Earth trying to find them.

T
he Planet Commander on the Principal’s display was yelling, “SIRE, OUR PLANETS ARE BEING ATTACKED BY MASSIVE NUMBERS OF RED WARSHIPS!”

“What?”

“They suddenly appeared above my planet and began attacking our ships. Our battleships are no match for them and they’ve begun blasting cities on the surface with nuclear weapons.”

The Principal’s eyes went wide as his planet’s defense Commander ran in, “Sire, we’re being attacked by thousands of red warships.”

The display changed on his panel and he saw hundreds of his battleships above his planet being destroyed by huge red colored warships. He stared at the display in shock as the image disappeared and a human’s face appeared, “It’s time for payback. I hope you enjoy the show.”

An hour later, a nuclear missile hit the palace in the center of the Capital City and the Principal no longer had to worry about making escape plans. They no longer served a purpose. He was burned in atomic fire like the billions of his citizens he had killed on the two planets he had destroyed.

• • •

“Sir, we’ve destroyed the defending fleet above the Raider’s Capital World.”

“Destroy the planet.”

“Do we need to capture their leader?”

“Admiral, follow your orders or do I need to find a replacement?”

The Admiral stared at his display and shook his head, “No Sir. I remember Avalon.”

“See that you don’t forget.’

The Admiral lifted his communicator, “All ships will spread out and start launching nuclear missile at all cities on the surface. I want them to hit the planet’s surface causing as much radioactive fallout as possible.”

The Admiral put the communicator down and watched the Capital City on the surface go up in a giant nuclear explosion. Three hours later as the mushroom cloud spread out in the upper atmosphere, he saw that the crater made by the blast was ten miles wide. His eyes narrowed as he thought, “That should leave a testimony to what they did to Avalon. That will be here ten thousand years from now.”

He was right. The crater would be there for millennia, but life on the planet would be gone in two weeks.

• • •

“Captain, have you found them?”

“No Sir. We’ve scanned this entire quadrant and the frequency of their reactors has not shown up.”

“Take your ships to your fleet and join the attack on the Raider’s planets. We’ll expand the search at the conclusion of hostilities.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

The Head Servant entered the High Priest’s quarters and found him looking at the feed from thousands of probes. He looked up at the Servant and said, “It’s started.”

“Do you think they will honor their agreement?”

“Probably not.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Activate the force field structures and raise the planetary guns above surface. If any of their warships enter our system, activate the defense systems.”

“What if just one ship enters?”

“Hail them and stop them from coming too close.”

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

The Head Servant left the High Priest’s chamber and wondered if any agreement with evil was ever kept.

• • •

Captain Rory Culholland saw one of Earth’s major battleships blow up next to his ship and the shock wave rattled his console. He looked at his Helmsman, “Get us out of here!” The giant Earth Battleship Taj Mahal shimmered for a moment and jumped two hundred miles away. The Planet Killer Missile went through its former location and turned as it locked on another Earth Battleship close by. It went to full speed and ran in on the giant ship’s rear thrusters. There was a momentary pause and then the entire battleship vaporized.

Rory watched the destruction and hit his communicator, “Admiral, hundreds of missile ships have jumped in on us and the missiles they’re launching are penetrating our force fields and killing our ships.”

“Send me an image of one of those ships!” Rory looked at his Communications Officer and he nodded as he copied the image on the monitor and fed it to the Admiral Hall’s frequency. “I’ve not seen this vessel.”

Rory shook his head at the failure of Intelligence to uncover this menace. “Sir, the ships carrying those missiles jumps in, launches twelve missiles, and then jumps away before we can hit them. We’ve lost more than eighty five major battleships and at least as many cruisers and destroyers.”

“Spread out and look for incoming jump tracks. Follow the track and emerge next to the incoming ship and fire at it before it can launch.” Admiral Hall waited for Captain Culholland to acknowledge his order but the Taj Mahal wasn’t responding. Admiral Hall contacted his Commander and detailed what was happening.