Planet Predators (17 page)

“I do. I’ve been ordered to pass along some information.”

“What is that?”

“We will no longer allow the Alliance to attack your planets or your ships. We have visited their Capital and the Leaders of the Alliance have agreed to no longer wage war against you.”

“Now that is interesting. Thank you.”

“There’s more.”

“Oh.”

“You will also no longer attack the Alliance Planets or their ships.” The Moet Master was silent. Gretchen waited and after an extremely long pause said, “I know you don’t like being told what to do by anyone else and you will probably ignore this when your colonists return. My leaders thought it was important that you understand our position on this before we destroy all of your ships.”

“Do you think you can carry out that threat?”

“It’s not really a threat.”

“Then just what would you call it?”

“A factual statement. Your species have your priorities all out of order. Do you think you strengthen yourself by warring with the Alliance?”

The Master’s thoughts were derailed by the question and after thinking about it replied, “The Alliance represents no threat to us.”

“How many of your ships have been destroyed by the Alliance within the last cycle?”

The Master knew that more than four hundred had been destroyed before the Masters began using Dreadnaughts but he wasn’t going to reveal that piece of information.

Gretchen again waited and finally said, “If it was only one, you’re one ship weaker. We know that our galaxy is threatened by forces from another galaxy. We only make it easier for them to destroy us by fighting among ourselves. I’m not bragging when I tell you that this small ship can kill any ship you choose to send against it. We will defend you against all outside invasions but we will also defend the Alliance. We really don’t care if you choose to ignore our warning but we feel you should know.”

The Moet watched the small ship turn and accelerate towards the outer system. He pulled a disc out of his board and turned to the Watcher, “Send this with the material collected from the attacks.”

The Watcher nodded and added a copy of the conversation to the file. It hoped his planet would never get the attention of those small white ships. Knowing the Ruling Masters, that hope didn’t stand much of a chance of surviving.

* * *

Arvolo and Izzy waited in the Jenze’s hospital room for him to regain consciousness. The doctors said that he was due to awake and they wanted to be present. “Are they through with the Ninja?”

Arvolo nodded, “The reactors have been updated and the drive systems completed to handle the increased pressures.”

“What about the weapons?”

“They were completed first. They had to increase the ship’s size and they added another sleeping quarters. According to Dr. Levin it is now stronger than the former Jukebox Class ships. It seems like our technology is exploding.”

“Yes, but it’s not from science we’ve discovered. Most of the advancements are from things taken from the Alliance and Jenze.”

Arvolo tilted his head to the left and nodded, “You’re right but the important thing to remember is that we stole the idea and improved on it. Our new reactor is tremendously stronger than anything the Jenze had. We almost believe that we can take on a Blue Giant Battleship with our newest battleship. I’ve volunteered us to go trial it in their galaxy but was refused.”

Izzy started giggling and then laughed out loud, “There you go picking a fight.”

Arvolo swelled up but then smiled, “Yeah, I guess I am.” They heard a moan and both of them stood up and went to the Jenze. He was starting to move and several doctors came rushing in the room. Arvolo and Izzy stepped back and the doctors looked at the display on the tank where the Jenze was suspended. One nodded and they pressed a button that released the fluid out of the tank. They then spun it horizontal and slid the board the Jenze was now laying on out of the container and started drying him with towels. They dressed him in a fleet coverall and the Jenze opened his eyes and winced.

“Is he ok, Doctor?”

“Yes, our readouts say his legs are mended and the muscles have not lost any strength during the regeneration.”

The Jenze heard Arvolo’s question and looked around the doctor and saw them standing off to the side. He looked back at the doctor as two orderlies assisted him in sitting up. “Lift him off the table.” The orderlies grabbed the Jenze’s upper arms and slid him off the table to his feet. The Jenze winced again and stood on his legs. He looked at the Doctor and said, “I expected to have more pain than this.”

“You shouldn’t have any and your legs should be stronger than before with all the eltrostimulation you’re been given.”

The Jenze bent his knees, squatted, and immediately stood up. He smiled and said, “Good work.”

The Doctor looked at Arvolo and said, “He’s all yours.” The Jenze looked at Arvolo and his expression immediately turned serious.

“Thank you, Doctor.” Arvolo turned to the Jenze and said, “My name is Arvolo but you can call me RV. This is Isadore Rosillo and we call her Izzy. What do we call you?”

There was a long pause and the Jenze said, “My name is Zack.”

“Well Zack, I would like to take you out to get something to eat. I’m sure you have some questions and I’ll try to answer them.”

“Lead the way.”

Arvolo turned and started out the door. The Jenze and Izzy fell in behind and left the room. The Jenze looked around and said, “I’m surprised you don’t have any guards?”

“I thought about having some here to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid but decided that if you want to escape you should be allowed to go. Holding you against your will is not something I would do.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“There’s a restaurant about two blocks away and I thought the walk would do all of us some good. By-the-way, how are your legs?”

The Jenze went up on his toes as he was walking and raised his shoulders, “It appears they are better than before my accident. I had a bad left knee and it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Yeah, I saw that and the Doctor said he could repair it.”

The three exited the building and the Jenze looked up at the tall buildings. The thing that caught his attention was the lanes of traffic flowing overhead, “Those vehicles don’t look like they’re gravity driven.”

“They’re not. We only discovered using gravity as a propulsion system a year or so ago and we’re only using it in our military right now. I’m sure in several years it will make its way into our civilian craft.”

The Jenze looked around and saw the massive crowds on the street and Arvolo knew he could see that if he chose to run there was no way he could be caught. Arvolo continued to walk ahead at a brisk pace and waited for the Jenze to decide his future. The Jenze stopped and Arvolo took Izzy’s hand and said under his breath, “Don’t look back.” He continued to walk and after a few moments the Jenze ran and caught up. Arvolo smiled and Izzy wondered how he knew the Jenze wouldn’t try to escape.

They arrived at the restaurant and the owner saw them enter. He motioned a waiter over and she took them to a table. “Do you eat meat or are you a vegetarian?”

“What is meat?”

Arvolo smiled, “We domesticate some animals on this planet and use them for food.”

“That’s crazy. Most of the animals on our planets have been killed in attacks on the planet.”

“Well, let’s see how you like it.” Arvolo ordered cheeseburgers and fries. The Jenze watched the crowds passing the restaurant in silence until the food arrived and then took a bite of the burger. He stopped as soon as he took the first bite and then chewed it slowly, “This is the best thing I have ever tasted.”

“Enjoy your meal.”

The Jenze finished the burger quickly and Arvolo asked, “Want another?”

“Absolutely.”

Arvolo reordered and Izzy said, “I notice you’re using our language much better.”

“While I was asleep the translator continued to work on your language. It transfers the information instantly and there were a lot of discussions in my room. It appears that those responsible for my care were amazed at my existence.”

“You have had an impact on our beliefs about our origins.”

“How so?”

“Our DNA is identical.”

“You must be Jenze.”

“Actually, we traced our origin from the evolution of primates on this planet. The current belief is that we evolved over a three million year period into what we are today.”

The Jenze thought about that and said, “If that were the case, we could not share DNA.”

“We know. The first modern man appeared about a quarter of a million years ago. We’ve assumed it was the next evolutionary step.”

“Well, if you can go back in the past like you claim, go and see what happened.”

“We’re leaving tomorrow to see what happened to your civilization; the Jenze no longer exist today.” Zack sat back in his chair and stared at them. “The problem we’re having is that according to an ancient civilization we’ve contacted recently; the Jenze disappeared millions of years ago. If that’s true, there was no way the Jenze could have come to our planet just three hundred thousand years ago to start our species.”

“You’re serious?”

“I am.”

“I can take you to one of our planets now and you can see for yourself that our demise is greatly exaggerated.”

Arvolo looked at Izzy and then said to Zack, “I want you to go with us to find out the truth. If your planet is still there, we will return you to your people if you will just make sure we’re not attacked while doing it.”

Zack smiled and said, “You have a deal.” He then grabbed his burger and took another bite. “This is fabulous.”

Izzy looked at Arvolo with a concerned expression and RV shook his head. Izzy knew Zack didn’t believe their statements about time travel. She hoped he wouldn’t be hurt by what happened next.

* * *

The next morning Zack met RV and Izzy outside his assigned quarters and boarded a shuttle. They flew to the space port and exited next to the Ninja. Zack looked at the small ship and turned to RV, “Is this the shuttle to your ship?”

RV smiled, “No, this is the ship we’re going to use to go exploring.”

Zack looked at the ship again and shook his head, “I hope it doesn’t explode if one of us sneezes.”

Izzy laughed and RV smiled, “No, I think it will hold up. We’ve had an extra chair installed on the bridge with a display for you to use. Are you ready?”

“Lead on.”

* * *

The three buckled in to their chairs and RV lifted the Ninja, retracted the landing gear, and accelerated into the early morning light. They arrived in orbit in ten minutes and RV went to light speed and accelerated toward the outer planets. Zack watched his display and furrowed his brow, “Why aren’t you just jumping into Green Space?”

“We can’t inside the solar system. We’ve set off a nuclear blast and the Green Space around the system is disrupted.”

Zack looked at his display again, “You are moving extremely fast; how fast are you traveling?”

“We’re at 96% of light speed.”

Zack stared at RV and looked at the display again. He knew that no ship could travel that fast. Something wasn’t right. The Ninja passed Neptune and RV dropped into Sierra Space. “Do you know the coordinates of the planet you want to travel?”

“Yes, I do.”

“There is a button next to your display that is green. If you press it and enter them with your keyboard, I’ll jump us to that planet.”

Zack stared at RV and was reluctant to give the coordinates of his home but knew that this ship couldn’t stand up to a Jenze Warship. He pressed the button and entered the coordinates. RV looked at his board and pressed the enable pad. The Ninja suddenly appeared outside a large planetary system and Zack looked at it on his display, “As soon as we enter natural space, let me do all the talking.” RV nodded and pressed the drive pad. The Ninja emerged into normal space looking down on a planet that was a wasteland.

Zack saw the planet and stood up. He said, “We’re in the wrong system. Show me the other planets.” RV began showing the fifteen planets one by one on the wall display and Zack stared at each one and slowly sat down. He looked at the planet on his display and saw the oceans were gone. There was no trace of the cities that once covered the continents. There was nothing but desolation.

RV looked at Zack and said, “Would you like to try another location?”

Zack sat up straight and entered another coordinate. The Ninja arrived and this time they found a planet that had been broken into pieces. Izzy watched the Jenze and saw the horror on his face. RV stared at the display and said, “Do you want to know how this happened?”

Zack turned and stared at him and slowly nodded.

“Izzy, did you get a frequency reading on the first planet?”

“Yes and I also got a frequency on the planetary system as well.”

“Give me a reading on the best line of sight for viewing.”

“How far back do you want to go?”

“We’ll start at sixty million years and work our way forward.”

Izzy entered the data into her board and waited. The board chimed and Izzy sent the coordinates to Arvolo. He hit the stardrive and Ninja disappeared into the green space and reappeared in the vast open space between galaxies. Zack looked at his display and saw they were no longer in the Milky Way. “Where are we?”

“We’re about sixty four million light years from our galaxy.”

“Why are we here?”

“We’re going to collect the light that was reflected off the first planet you took us to sixty four million years ago and see if we can determine what was happening. Give me a few minutes to set up the emitters. This could take a while.” RV oriented the ship while Izzy powered the emitters. “Alright, Izzy, expand the field.”

Izzy watched the readout and said, “The system reported a ninety five percent probability of unobstructed lines.” Zack watched them and began to fear that they were not insane. They waited for an hour and then an alarm sounded, “I’ve got it. I’ve sent the location to your board.”

RV moved the ship at high speed and began adjusting the view controls. Zack watched the main wall display and saw the view on his display move at extreme speed into the galaxy and toward a cluster of stars. It then moved toward a single star and stopped. He looked at the planets in the solar system they were viewing and said, “This is the right place.”