Annihilation Series-Searching for a Hero (24 page)

“We are going to release our ships into that other place and charge them to find the enemy’s ships and destroy them. They will use hit and run tactics and force a war of attrition on them until we have enough forces to meet them head on.”

“We don’t have enough ships to do that now with the addition of the Algeans?”

Ping shook his head, “Director, we are far from their numbers. We must start building ships now and do it faster than we ever have in the past.” Ping turned to the Elder, “I’m going to have to depend on you to carry that load.”

“We will start that process immediately. What are you going to be doing?”

“I have to find the being in that Creation who will lead our efforts. We will launch our initial move into their space in five months through the locations of four of the portals they used to invade here.”

“I thought you had searched for him prior to now?”

“I have but I didn’t understand a very important principle.”

“What is that?”

“There are no accidents. Everything that happens does so for a reason.”

The Elder paused and thought, “I’m not sure I understand.”

“I know where he is. At least I know what part of that Creation he is located. If I had paid attention, I would have already started this operation and I would have found him.”

“Where is he?”

“Where we’re not going to attack. I need you to distract them while I go and find him.”

The attendees looked at Ping and wondered if he really knew. Ping had no doubt.

• • • • •

Tess looked at the monitors and saw the creatures burning another body of one of their warriors. It had died horribly, roaring its pain as it went into fatal convulsions. Dahlia and Dean had gone to the surface in their nemite armor and hit him eight days earlier with a tiny sliver launched from an air gun. They had shot ten other warriors during the previous week and they returned to the hole and waited for the virus to take effect.

“I’m thankful you weren’t seen.”

Dean shook his head, “You can thank Dahlia for that. She seems to have a second sense for avoiding being seen.”

Tess nodded, “Let us pray they make the right decision. Power up the nemite ships and make sure they understand that they will crash their ships into any of the invader ships that take station to fire on our planet. They will launch on my command only.”

Dean nodded and left the room for the hole located under the northern ice cap.

• • • • •

The Doctor looked at the Advisor and feared for his life. The huge Commander was furious, “What do you mean we have to leave this planet!?!”

“There is a disease here that will kill any of our species it contacts. It doesn’t affect the locals but it is deadly to us and there is no cure for it.”

“Are you certain there isn’t a cure?”

“I am, Master.”

What about the warriors I have on the surface?”

“We have the ability to scan for the disease’s presence and we can put all of those who have not been exposed through decontamination and move them off planet.”

“I suppose I’ll have to destroy the planet afterwards.”

“I would advise strongly against doing that.”

“And why would I not?”

“If you explode the planet, large pieces of it would be blasted away and out into space. There is a possibility that in the distant future one of those pieces would arrive at one of our planets. If a planetary population was exposed, it would spread through the domain faster than you could imagine.”

“Why haven’t all of our forces been exposed if it would spread that quickly?”

“The virus has not had a medium to grow until our arrival. There are only eleven outposts that have been contaminated and all of those warriors at them have been ordered to remain where they are. I hate to suggest it but it may be a good idea to vaporize those locations before we leave so the disease will not have a medium that will allow it to grow.”

The Advisor had arrived from another conquest and was angry at the waste of a good planet and population to build his ships. He watched the warrior’s death on his display and he felt immediate fear at the suffering caused by the disease. “Start moving our forces immediately.”

• • • • •

Tess watched the invaders begin moving their forces and she waited for what might be coming. Dean watched his display with the nemite ships under the pole and saw eleven of the enemy ships move into orbit above the planet. “Tess, we have to hit them now!” Dean lifted the cover above the button that would launch the ships and yelled, “TESS!”

Dahlia watched the display with Tess and, as she reached for the communicator to authorize the launch, Dahlia grabbed her arm. Tess looked at her and Dahlia shook her head, “Don’t do it!”

Tess stared at her and almost ordered the launch when eleven bright beams shot out of the invader ships and hit the planet’s surface. The eleven ships fired three more times each and then disappeared. Tess looked at Dahlia, “How did you know?”

“They only use three ships to destroy a planet. We infected eleven of their warriors…I don’t know, Tess. I just sensed they weren’t going to destroy the planet.”

Tess fell back in her command chair and blew out the breath she had been holding. If they had launched the ships…but they didn’t. Dean appeared on the monitor, “How did you know not to do it, Tess?”

“I didn’t; it was Dahlia.”

Dean looked at his sister on his display and shook his head. Something wasn’t right. “Dahlia…”

“I don’t know, Dean. I honestly don’t know how I knew but if they were going to hit the planet, they would have only used three ships. There were eleven ships in orbit. I guess I subconsciously made the connection that we infected eleven of their troops and that was what they were going to hit.”

Dean thought a moment and it made sense…but…that was a huge guess with the planet’s survival hanging in the balance of being wrong. He knew he wouldn’t have taken that risk. He looked at Tess and saw she felt the same way. “Someone’s coming.”

Dean and Tess looked at Dahlia and she could only shake her head when they questioned her about what she meant.

• • • • •

The Advisor stared at the Master on his display and he was barely able to conceal his rage at what he was being ordered to do. “Why would we go to the defense of the other Rulers?”

“Because if we don’t they will combine their forces and come here to destroy us.”

“Have they threatened to do that?”

“They have and, since your fleets are not defending our planets, you will take your ships to their territories to meet the ships attacking them.”

The Advisor was caught in an untenable position. Suggesting the Master send ships defending the home worlds was suicide. He had barely gained ground in the new territory but the facilities to build warships had not even started construction. There was nothing he could do but follow his directives. “What about the warriors on the planets?”

“Leave them transports to bring them back. I don’t want them away if our worlds are attacked. Now get moving!”

The Advisor bowed and his display went dark. He slammed his fist into his display shattering it into fragments that scattered across the bridge’s floor. He turned to his Communications Leader, “Recall our ships.” The officer hesitated and the Advisor lashed out with his arm and severed the officer’s head. He looked at the officer’s subordinate with a snarl and he started shouting commands into his panel. He kicked the officer’s dead body across the bridge and said, “Clean this up,” as he stormed off the ship’s bridge.

E
ric Pederson looked at the young Algean on his display and smiled, “I understand that we have the honor of introducing ourselves to the steel blue ships.”

“I do hope they appreciate all the effort it’s taken to dress up for this.”

Eric smiled and looked at his navigation panel, “I suspect we should keep our units intact and not mix our forces.”

“I’m forced to agree. You can’t respond fast enough to our instructions and we’ll be reacting faster than you can decipher our intentions.”

“Then let’s do it this way; I’ll move on the planet with three moons and you go to the planet with eight.”

“We should do it the other way around.”

“Why?”

“Meaning no disrespect, the most ships are at the planet with three moons. I suspect we will stand a better chance against them.”

Eric almost let his pride make a bad decision and then he thought of Mios, “You’re right. If you need us, send me a message.”

“I hope you’ll do the same; however, don’t get caught up in a pitched battle.”

“I know; stick and move is the order of the day.”

“Stick and move??”

“It’s a colloquialism from an ancient sport called boxing.”

“Oh; well stick carries a completely different connotation to us.”

Eric laughed, “I keep forgetting you’re a plant.”

“Thank you. We’ll talk after this is over.”

Eric nodded and started issuing orders.

• • • • •

The Chinga fleet was scattered around the planet with the on duty warships two hundred thousand miles out from the planet. The ships on leave were hanging in orbit above the planet with most of their crews on the giant ship building facilities above the planet. One moment everything was still and peaceful. A moment later, Eric’s twenty thousand Searchers teleported in just above the planet and blasted the ship building facilities with hundreds of energy pulses. Eight hundred of them arrived above the planet and fired energy balls into the manufacturing and mining sites on the planet’s surface. The Searchers then accelerated around the planet hitting every ship they encountered before they could go to battle stations.

The ships on guard duty turned and accelerated toward the planet but arrived moments after the small red ships jumped away. The three defense satellites with their automatic weapon systems above the planet were given a wide girth but they still managed to reach out and hit seventy of the ships attacking the planet. Eric saw the recording of their destruction and wouldn’t make the mistake of getting that close in the future. The range of the satellite’s beams was greater than he thought possible.

• • • • •

The Algeans went in against a planet where every ship was on a war status. The Algeans could observe the individual beams on the ships they were attacking and move before they could be targeted. The twenty thousand small ships moved through the ranks of the Chinga ships, blowing thousands of them into rubble. Even with their superior reflexes, more than a thousand of the Algeans were hit and killed. No species in the Realm was better at firing their weapons than the Algeans. They could fire at a Chinga ship and launch an energy ball at the structures above the planet simultaneously. The massive destruction above the planet and on the surface was staggering. A minute after the attack began, it was over. The Chinga fleet was decimated and all of the huge facilities above the planet were burning with multiple explosions erupting. The manufacturing facilities on the planet’s surface were little more than huge holes in the dirt. There would be no ships built for a long time. The Chinga were damaged in a major fashion with the destruction of their two largest ship building planets.

• • • • •

Tess put the communicator down and looked at Dean and Dahlia, “The Invaders have withdrawn from all of our planets.”

“WHAT?”

“Naughton reports that they overheard that the Invaders are being recalled to go to the defense of other civilizations.”

Dean frowned, “Who could possibly force them to leave?”

Tess tilted her head, “You know who the power is here. It has to be one of them.”

“Who could possibly be attacking them?”

“I don’t have any idea. Perhaps they’re fighting each other.”

“That would answer my prayers.”

Tess looked at Dahlia, “Do you know what’s going on?”

Dahlia was momentarily startled by the question, “I don’t know.”

“But…”

“They’re not attacking each other.”

“How do you know that?”

“Think about it. If that were the case, you know the Black Ships would just wait to see who won. The winner would be too weakened to force them to do anything.”

Dean looked at Dahlia, “If they’re not attacking each other, who is?”

Dahlia shrugged, “I don’t know.”

Tess shook her head and Dean said, “What?”

“What if the attacker is worse than the other five?”

“Nothing could be worse than those civilizations.”

“You better make a new prayer that they aren’t.”

“They aren’t.” They turned to Dahlia and she had a far-away look, “They’re not like them.”

Dean ran his fingers through his hair, “How could you possibly know that?”

Dahlia came back to the present and smiled, “Like you said, nothing could be worse.”

“They could be carnivores.”

Dahlia looked at Tess and shook her head, “If that were the case they would make a pact with the other five.”

“You know how territorial the other five are. They wouldn’t agree to a pact.”

“If the new agency is powerful enough to make them go to each other’s defense, I suspect they would make an agreement rather quickly.”

Tess stared at Dahlia and after a long moment she said, “What’s happening to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been changing over the last six years. Something’s going on.”

Dean nodded, “How did you avoid those beams fired at us when we ran for the forest? How did you know those two enemy warriors were there? How did you know those ships weren’t going to destroy the planet? Do I need to keep going?”

Dahlia sighed, “I don’t know.” Tess opened her mouth and Dahlia quickly said, “I really don’t know. I just seem to…I don’t know…sense things.”

“What else are you able to do?” Dean looked at Tess and she shook her head. He looked back at Dahlia and she looked up from the floor at Tess and didn’t say anything. Dean started to speak but saw the blaster on the wall suddenly levitate off its mounts and move across the floor toward them. His eyes went wide and Tess wondered what had him shocked when the blaster came over her head and settled into Dahlia’s hands. Her eyes went wider than Dean’s.