Planet Predators (26 page)

RV whistled, “Boy, that galaxy is huge.”

“Yes it is. It has ten times the number of stars we have. I’m extending the fields.” The fields moved ten seconds and an alarm went off. Chris watched the display and said, “That’s the fastest we’ve ever received an alert.” He stared at the display as it expanded even further and saw a huge purple band extend around the edge of the galaxy. “It appears that the species in question inhabits a huge area.” Chris stared at the readout and said, “But it occupies an area that is only located in the outer edge. It extends fifty light years into the interior and stops.”

RV said, “There must be another species that has prevented any further expansion.”

Zack said, “See if you can view the area at the inner edge of their domain and try to isolate a large signal of their ships.”

RV said, “You think we’ll find a battle taking place?”

“That’s where it would happen.”

Chris looked at the display and saw the entire outer edge was colored purple. He sent commands to the system and the vast band resolved itself into four hundred bright circles. Zack stared and asked, “What are those?”

“Those are concentrations of the Violet Ships. Each one has more than a million ships each.”

RV shook his head, “How far back are we looking?”

“A hundred years.”

“Let’s jump to ten years and see if anything has changed.”

Chris made the jump and they immediately saw that the circles were smaller. “The fleet’s numbers are now at half the strength they were.”

RV stared at the display and walked forward and pointed to one slightly in front of the others, “Let’s take a look at this one.”

Chris began adjusting the controls and asked, “Any particular reason you picked that one?”

“Yes, they are outside the boundary established by the other circles. I think that is a conflict taking place.”

The view moved in and suddenly thousands of ships were seen attacking each other. The Violet Ships were in their ranks with a common force field and the attackers were in brightly glowing Yellow ships that would accelerate in and hit the force field and launch missiles through the hole blown in it. For every successful attack, more than twenty of the Yellow Ships would be killed by the bright white pulses that struck before they could get in range. The number of ships being destroyed was staggering. RV watched the battle and said, “The Violet Ships are outnumbered. They are going to lose this battle.”

Chris shook his head and said, “It doesn’t look that way. They appear to be holding those ships off.”

“They are but they have a space behind them because they are in front of their battle lines. That space will be their undoing.”

Chris turned back to the display and moved in closer to the area behind the Violet Ships. He saw something in the distance beyond the battle and moved in on the image. There were more than twenty thousand Yellow Ships accelerating toward the back of the Violet Ship’s formation. He followed them in and saw them rush in on the giant formation. The Violet Ships tried to turn some of their ranks to face the incoming enemy but were too slow. The Yellow Ships hit the formation just as the ships in front of it accelerated in. The force field was breached in thousands of places and hundreds of thousands of missiles were fired into their ranks.

Chris turned to RV and said, “You saw that coming?”

“They made the mistake of moving forward from their lines to kill more ships.”

“It appears from this that the Violet Ships will not be in a position to attack anyone.” RV just stared at Chris. “You don’t agree with me?”

“No, I suppose I don’t. I think the Violet Ships will use this loss as a maneuver to defeat them in the future. I think we should go to a month out from the area of conflict and take a quick look.”

“Why just a quick look?”

“I’m not certain that their scans will be limited to light speed.”

“Why do you think that?”

“With our George Communicators, we can have the data sent to us instantly. I would suggest moving in and then accelerate to get a quick record of what’s happening and then we’ll focus in on what we see after we leave. Just make sure you jump toward a different galaxy than ours and Andromeda.”

“Tell me what makes you think they can do what you suspect?”

“If the thickness of their force field represents what I think it does, their ships are tremendously more powerful than they were in our first view of them. That would also mean their beams are more powerful.”

Zack nodded, “The most advances take place during wars. It appears that this war has been waged for a long time.”

RV said, “You noticed that?”

“It’s hard to miss.”

Jillian asked, “Miss what?”

“The ships they were fighting have their own battle line. You can see it by the formations that moved in to attack.”

Chris looked at Jillian and then made the adjustments to his board, “We’re jumping in two minutes. I’ll accelerate and record two weeks of information and then I’ll jump away towards M83. That Galaxy is directly away from ours and Andromeda.”

RV looked at Zack and said, “We should go man the beams.”

“I’m right behind you.”

The Ninja entered normal space and accelerated. After three minutes it left normal space and jumped away.

Four minutes after it left, six hundred Violet Ships appeared at its former location and scanned for the ship that had appeared on their scanners. The Controller of the squadron looked at his scanner and asked, “Where did it go?”

“There was no trail in the jump space.”

“Scan this space closely.”

After an hour the Controller heard on his communicator, “We have found particles from a propulsion system that stretch over a light week. However, there is nothing at the point where it started and where it ended.”

“Does the propulsion residue match up with any we have in our data?”

“No, it does not.”

“Go into jump space and scan it thoroughly. Something was here and I want answers.”

After another twelve hours the Controller received a message, “We’ve found a swirling of jump space that appears to have moved towards the companion galaxy. It is a very small movement and that is all we’ve be able to uncover.”

“Send the report to Home Hive and return to your assignments.” The six hundred ships jumped away.

* * *

Chris jumped the Ninja back into normal space and accelerated away at light speed. After an hour he came to a stop and waited. RV watched the scanners and said, “They were unable to follow us.”

“Do you think they saw us?”

“I believe so because they don’t have any ships outside the edge of their territory. The only way they would be that careless is if they felt secure that they could respond to any threat coming from outside the galaxy.”

“We’ll wait here a little longer. I’m going to rewind what we recorded and take a look at what’s going on.” Chris rewound and focused in on the area that the two civilizations were facing each other. RV took a look at the deployment of the two combatants and said, “The Violet Ships are setting a trap for the other.”

Chris looked at the skirmish line and said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Notice that all along the battle line that fifty of their fleets are moving slightly in front of the others.”

“Just like last time.” RV nodded. “What are they doing?”

“They’re trying to bait the Yellow Ships to send their ships to attack from the rear again.”

“What are they going to do if they attack?”

“Notice that there is a second battle line of ships behind the front one. The Violet Ships are going to allow their enemy to send large numbers to attack and then their front line is going to rush forward and attack the line in front of them which has been weakened by sending large numbers to attack from the rear. When they rush forward the second line is going to rush out and attack the ships coming in from the rear of the front line.”

“Do you think it will work?”

“If those Yellow Ships fall for it, they will be decimated.”

Zack looked over and said, “Surely they won’t take the bait?”

“They don’t have our view. They can’t see two lines of attack; the force field of the front line is obscuring their view of what’s behind them. This could be a difference maker.” RV thought a moment and said, “Chris, can you back out and see what is behind the Yellow Ships?”

“How far behind?”

“Start at ten light years and then move forward.”

The view on the display moved out and then focused on an area behind the Yellow Ships. The view moved closer and five light years behind the battling fleets they saw a huge mass of Yellow Ships in a broad formation. “I was afraid of that.”

Jillian asked, “What?”

“The two fleets that are currently fighting are not the main fleets of their respective civilizations. They are attack fleets that attempt to expand their territories. Their main body of ships is kept at the boundaries of their home space. It the Violet Ships win, they still won’t be able to attack their home but they will have a reprieve from the attack fleet.”

Chris moved the view back to the battle and said, “What would that mean?”

“The Violet Ship’s domain is surrounded by the Yellow Ship’s borders. If the Violet Ships win, then their attack fleet will be freed up to go elsewhere.”

“That is not a good thing.”

“No, it’s not, Admiral.”

Chris fast forwarded the video and they saw the Violet Ships that were out in front of their battle lines fell back and reformed into one line. The number of ships being killed was staggering and Chris said, “It looks like their plan didn’t work.”

“Oh, it worked. They’re just baiting the trap.”

They watched and huge numbers of violet ships surged forward and stopped. RV said, “Now is when it will happen.”

They watched the ships moving in fast motion on the screen and then they saw thousands of Yellow Ships disappear from their front line. They reappeared below the Violet Ships and accelerated up toward the advanced ships. That’s when the second line of Violet Ships rushed and out and demolished them. The second line joined the first and they rushed forward together and brought devastation to the weakened front line of the Yellow Ships. Thousands were destroyed and the survivors turned and fled from the advancing Violet Ships. The advancing Violet Ships moved forward and stopped a light year from the giant mass of Yellow Ships on the border between the two domains. They then turned and returned to their former battle line’s location.

Chris looked at RV, “We don’t have long, do we?”

‘No, we don’t.”

Chris looked at Jillian, “Do you have any ideas?”

“Yes, I do. Zack, do you understand how to fly the Ninja now?”

“Yes, I do.”

“You and Commodore Rosillo will come here every month and take a quick snap shot of what the Violet Ships are doing. You will always jump away towards M83 and then send your reports home. We’ll have George rush ship production until the very last moment before they arrive and then we’ll have to shut down while their scouts are in our galaxy.” She looked at Arvolo, “You will have to get our ships ready in time. There will be huge numbers of inexperienced crews and we’ve got to get them up to speed.”

RV thought about Zack with the Ninja and then understood it had to happen exactly that way. “I’ll do the best I can.”

Chris said, ‘That’s all we can ask, Admiral.” Chris turned to Zack and said, “Why don’t you take us home.”

Zack sat down in the command chair and pulled Earth’s coordinates. He entered them and jumped away.

Chris said to his panel, “Contact George Sierra.”

George appeared on the display and immediately saw Chris’s expression, “What’s wrong?”

“It appears that the Violet Ships may be returning a lot sooner than we thought. It might be a good idea to have everyone notified that they should be ready to jump their starships away on short notice.”

“How long do you think we have?”

Chris looked at RV and he shook his head, “We don’t know. I’m sending the Ninja out to keep track of their movements but a huge Violet Ship battle fleet has been freed up and I don’t think they will just let it sit idle. Where are we in ship production?”

“We have four planets producing them now. Hemon really helped by making the production facilities modular so that they can be set up in less than thirty days. We have two hundred up and running and they have all completed one ship. The Crews have been trained on the systems but the Command structure is basically inexperienced. If we can get a couple of months we should be able to get two hundred more completed.”

RV said, “I suspect we’ll have longer than that before the invasion but I’m just not certain when they’ll send the scouts.”

“Why would that matter?”

“Won’t we have to stop production when they show up? I’m reasonably certain that they can scan for a stardrive.”

“Our production facilities are all under roof. They won’t see what we’re building unless they land and take a look. We just won’t launch the ships or activate their stardrives until the scouts leave. We can store more than ten ships in each facility.”

RV thought a moment and said, “George, how long does it take you to manufacture Needles?”

“Actually, we’ve had to slow their production down. We have more than enough for all the ships we’ll build over the next year.”

“George, get production started again. Launch all the Needles you currently have in stock out to the area we’re sending our ships. We also need a colony ship set up to take over the subject training from the Academy. We can be training our Needle Pilots now with the ships that just returned. Those Needles are ship killers in their own right and it would be great if we could put more strikers on their hulls.”

George thought a moment and said, “We can double the number. We’ll just have them anchored around the middle of the hull instead of under the engine mounts. You’ll also like the new Striker.”

Chris and RV looked at George with puzzled expressions. Chris asked, “What have you changed?”

“The guidance system can be switched from seek to follow.”

“Tell me the difference, George.”