Planet Predators (27 page)

“The Pilot will arm the strikers on their ships by using their scanners to download the frequency of the ships we’ll be attacking. Once the pilot fires the striker at a ship it will follow that ship at light speed where ever it runs. If it jumps away the striker will find another target with that frequency.”

“What about follow?”

“The Striker will scan for the three pulses from our Main Beams and fall in behind them and follow them in to their target. If the beams happen to miss they will automatically go to seek.” George looked at them and asked, “Are our weapons going to work against those ships?”

Chris shook his head, “I really don’t know. They are far ahead of where they were in the first recording we made of them. We won’t know until we line up across from them and trade punches.”

“Were you able to determine the range of their weapons?”

RV spoke up, “It looks like eight hundred miles for the white pulses.”

“Well, we should have a slight advantage. Ours are good out to eleven hundred miles.”

“We are also faster, George.” RV looked at Chris and he nodded for him to continued, “Their typical battles are fought from stationary battle lines and don’t require speed. Their weapons are tremendously stronger but developing a faster ship is not something they’ve worked on.”

George said, “Stand by a moment.” The display went dark and then came back on, “I just looked at the original recording and have timed those white pulses at sixty five percent of light speed. Do you know if they are any faster now?”

Chris said, “Stand by.” He pulled up the recording of the recent battle and used the computer to track the white pulses. He tilted his head and said, “George, the pulses are now twice as big as the first and are able to fly at the same speed. They are not faster.”

“Then the only way they can hit you is if you are moving toward them when they fire. The closing speed moving toward them will be faster than our ships can fly but we should be able to outrun those pulses otherwise.”

Jillian asked, “George, I’m curious about how they can have beams change direction and home in on a target.”

“I have no idea, Jillian. That’s technology that’s millions of years ahead of us. The good news is that their pulses don’t move at light speed like ours. By-the-way, how many ships do you think they’ll be sending?”

Chris looked at RV and he said, “Between three and five hundred thousand.”

George pulled out his calculator and started making entries. He stared at the result and looked at them, “Then we’ll have to kill them in bunches. We won’t have enough munitions to kill them one by one.”

Chris looked at the other three on his bridge and said, “If we can penetrate their force fields, we will do just that.”

“Do you think we can?”

“We won’t know until the Strikers start hitting.”

George shook his head slightly and the display went dark.

* * *

Arvolo sat on the Havana and watched the Needles go through their maneuvers. The twenty four hundred pilots were being cross trained on the defense weave and attack procedures. Some of the old Jukebox class vessels were their targets and were flown by remote control. The attack pilots were unsuccessful in trapping the old ships until they learned how to work together. Arvolo looked at the inventory and saw that only fifteen remained. The most recent class of pilots had been brought out to the Colony Ship and assigned an experienced Pilot to fly with.

RV looked at the most recent recording from M87 and saw that the Battle Fleet was being provisioned and they should complete the process in less than three months. That meant they would be sending their scouts out soon. The two hundred new Battleships had arrived two months ago and many crew members of the three ships that had gone to the Blue Giant Galaxy were promoted and given command of those new ships. Qualified sailors advanced fast in this new Navy.

He looked over at Cyanna screaming at one of the Battleship commanders about losing their place in the fleet weave. He stared at her and wondered at how beautiful she was. The new responsibility seemed to give her an energy that shone through her. She was focused and determined that her fleet was going to be the best. So far she had held up her end. She had beaten both of the other fleets in the last exercise. He had also learned that she had begun an accelerated command course for the officers that demonstrated talent. She had the Battleships Commanders take turns with their executive officers in the maneuvers. She kept the list of the best with her at all times. She had also demoted and replaced eight of the Captains. That made the others quite nervous about not keeping up.

RV had told Kenny what she was doing and he began his own list. Kenny told Bob and the maneuvers became a lot more competitive. They were making progress but Arvolo knew that space battles, like bar room brawls, never went according to plan.

Cyanna saw Arvolo staring at her and turned and said, “What?”

RV smiled and said, “I was just thinking how far you’ve come since that training day.”

Cyanna smiled, “It seems like it was years ago.”

RV nodded.

Cyanna stared at Arvolo and said, “What are you doing next shift?”

“I think I’m going to be sitting here watching the next shifts maneuvers.”

“What about taking a shuttle over to the China Star and getting a bite to eat?”

RV smiled, “Are you asking me out?”

Cyanna smiled, “I believe I am. What about it?”

RV thought about Maria and then said, “Call me when the shuttle’s ready.”

Cyanna nodded and turned back to her display. RV took quick glances at her and wondered what she wanted. Oh well, she’d tell him later.

Cyanna tried to focus on the current maneuvers but felt her heart beating faster and smiled with anticipation of the coming evening.

Chapter Eighteen

T
he Messenger entered the room and waited at an appropriate distance. The First saw him and stopped what he was doing to see what information was being delivered. The Messenger leaned forward and said, “We have received a recording on the frequency that those strange ships use to contact us.”

“Show me what you have.” The Messenger played the recording and the First absorbed it and felt immediate tension. “Did they have any comments associated with this?”

“They did not.”

“Notify me if anything comes in.”

The Messenger leaned back in respect and moved smoothly out of the room.

The other Leaders waited and felt the First’s apprehension. He moved to the table and played the video for the others.

The Seventh said, “They’re coming back.”

“It appears they are.”

The Second added, “We’re not ready.”

The First looked at the Fifth and ordered, “Launch the Colonies immediately.”

“Do you think that’s needed?”

“Review the video and pay close attention to the power of their force fields.”

After a moment the Third said, “I will start them moving.”

The Seventh said, “One piece of information included with that recording was the frequency of the Violet Ships. We should move our fleet to the outer edge of our Galaxy and scan for any of their scouts that arrive. We need to prevent them from attacking our most important planets.”

The First looked at the Seventh and asked, “Why are they assisting us?”

“I believe they are being honest. They do not view us as their real enemy and any enemy of the Violet Ships is an ally. They would help us under those circumstances even if we don’t accept them as a friend.”

“So you don’t think they would attack us if the Violet Ships were removed as a threat?”

“They said they would not.” The Seventh saw the tension in the First and quickly added, “I recognize that this violates all that we have learned about survival patterns but in a universe this big, there is a possibility that such a species does exist. This is just more evidence to support their claims.”

The other Six thought about the idea and the First said, “Send them a message and thank them for the information.”

“You know the Violet Ships will go to their Galaxy first.”

“If what they said is true, you are probably right. What do you think they are doing?”

“I don’t know but I will ask.”

“Do you think they will tell you?”

“If they do, we need to really think about our plans concerning them.”

“We’ll see.”

* * *

A week later the Seventh said, “They are sending all of their ships with stardrives out of their galaxy to make it appear that there are no advanced civilizations there. They seem to think that if they are successful, the Violet Ships will bypass them and come here.”

The Leaders thought and then the First asked, “Can we do the same thing?”

“Those beings seem to think that it will not work with us.”

“Why?”

“Because we have invaded the other galaxy with massive numbers of ships several times in the past and there is a great possibility that it was seen by the Violet Ships.”

“Do they have any evidence to support that position?”

“They have found a small probe between our two galaxies that operates on the frequency of the Violet Ships. They say it can track trails in Green Space and it has been there since their last invasion. They gave me the coordinates of the probe and our Military has confirmed its existence.”

“Wouldn’t it have tracked their ships when they came here?”

“They say their ships don’t leave trails.”

The First stared at the Seventh until he said, “The Military has also confirmed that they left no trails when they jumped away.”

The Fifth asked, “What if we sent huge numbers of our ships to their galaxy to make the invaders believe there is advanced cultures there?”

The Seventh leaned back showing his disagreement, “Then we lose their help and the probe will see that the ships came from here. It would not help us to do that and would probably bring them here faster.”

“Do you think they will help us if we call them?”

“I honestly don’t know. I know I wouldn’t if I were in their place.”

“Neither would I; we’ll have to handle this on our own. Let’s hope we have enough time to save our populations.”

“The first wave of Colony Ships has left and the second will soon be ready.”

“Good.”

* * *

The First leaned forward and thought to the group, “I am glad we made you one of us, Seventh. If you have any other thoughts, share them quickly. I don’t think we have much time before they attack.”

The Seventh leaned forward showing his agreement.

* * *

RV and Cyanna sat at a small table in the Officers Club on board the China Star. The Colony Ship was huge and contained the entire staff from the Fleet Academy as well as all the sailors being trained for the new ships. Two other Colony Ships were transferring the munitions needed for the newly arriving Battleships and were in view outside the clear view port in the restaurant.

“Those ships are huge.”

“They’re still not as big as a Blue Giant Battleship.”

Cyanna smiled, “That’s true but they are larger than any other ship in our Navy.”

RV looked off in the distance and said, “I wonder what a Blue Giant Colony Ship would look like?”

“Do you think they have any?”

RV shrugged, “I have no idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.”

“Then they probably do; your hunches are usually right.”

RV stared at Cyanna. They had finished their meal and were slowly drinking their wine. RV said, “Cyanna, why did you want me to come here?”

Cyanna turned red and said, “You are also quite blunt in your questions.”

“I’m sorry; I just wondered what’s on your mind. I assumed you had something you wanted me to do for you.”

Cyanna stared at RV and said, “You really have no idea, do you?”

“Well…no, I don’t”

Cyanna thought about it and decided that being vague was not the right way to open their conversation. She smiled and said, “I happen to have a crush on you and I was hoping I could convince you to spend a little time with me.”

Arvolo stared at her and showed his shock.

“Do you have a problem with a subordinate making a pass?”

RV said, “Have you taken a good look at me? I’m over weight, my hair is thinning, and I’m not much to look at. You on the other hand are one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. What in this universe would attract you to someone like me?”

“Come on, RV. You’re selling yourself short.”

“No, I’m not. I know what I look like and I have never been someone that would attract anyone.”

“You attracted a wife.”

RV’s expression changed immediately, “She loved me for other reasons.”

“Just as I am attracted to you.” RV stared to respond but she quickly continued, “When I was in the fifth grade I had a young man tell me he thought I was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. RV, he was truly ugly and was the brunt of many insulting remarks. I thanked him and ran away.”

“What are you saying, Cyanna?”

“Our teacher assigned a group project for my class and no one would volunteer to work with Jimmy. I told her I would do it. I could just see his misery and didn’t want him to have another insult thrown at him. We started working on the project and I discovered that Jimmy was the smartest person I had ever encountered. He came up with ideas that I would have never thought of and fascinated me with what he knew.”

She paused and RV nodded for her to continue.

“The funny thing about that project was that when we started I saw Jimmy as being hard to look at. As we worked together he became more and more pleasing to be around. By the time we finished he was beautiful. I no longer saw his appearance; I saw the wonderful person he was and I chose to spend as much time as I could with him. By the end of the year, I loved him.”

“Where is he now?”

“He died two years later. He had a rare genetic disorder called Acromegaly. It’s extremely rare in children but Jimmy had it. It causes the one that has it to be disfigured and that is what caused Jimmy’s appearance to be so bad. It is a disease of the brain and in Jimmy’s case, the pituitary gland that caused it developed cancer and he died young.