Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground (14 page)

“They are.”

“Their force fields appear to be layered.”

“They have four layers with each one more powerful than the other.”

“What about the other fleet, Willow?”

“They are heavily outnumbered and appear to be defending a planet.”

“Where is the planet?”

“It’s behind a force field.”

“I still can’t see it?”

“It’s totally black, Chris but the energy used to power it is visible on the energy band.”

Chris looked to the right and said, “I see it. Willow, the power behind that force field is enormous.”

“The force field around their ships is also several levels of magnitude stronger than any I’ve ever seen.”

“Are they winning?”

“They’re holding their own but ten of the attackers can kill one of their ships. Wait a minute.”

“What?”

“More than ten thousand more ships have emerged from the planet’s force field and the attackers are starting to skip away.”

“How do you think they layer those force fields, Willow?”

“I’ve scanned one of the destroyed warships and it appears they do it by assigning different reactors to each field. The reactors don’t appear to be as strong as ours.”

“So they don’t have a higher level of technology than our ships?”

“No, it appears they don’t.”

“How about the defenders?”

“I’ve scanned one of their destroyed ships and it appears to only have one reactor.”

“ONE?”

“Yes, all that power is coming from one reactor. It even powers their beam weapons.”

“What sort of reading do you get from the reactor? Does it use radioactive materials in in?”

“I’m not getting a reading of radioactivity from the one that has a ruptured containment vessel.” Chris closed his eyes and focused on one of the defender’s ships. He listened to the crew and finally found the one responsible for the reactor. He listened and hoped the being would think about the reactor. “Chris, I think they detect our scan. Some of the ships have turned in our direction.”

“Stop scanning. Don’t leave yet.”

“But…”

Audrey said, “Do as he says, Willow. I don’t think they can see us behind our cloud. Wait!”

Chris listened to the being and it didn’t think about the reactor. “Come on!” Then he heard, “Reactor status?”

“The Dark Energy is holding steady.” Chris saw how the energy was stored in the reactor and then Willow skipped out.

“WILLOW!”

“Chris, they are telepathic and were sensing you. The Cloud won’t hide us from them if they’re moving in on your thoughts.”

Chris blew out a breath and fell back in his chair. Audrey said, “Did you get anything?”

“They’re using Dark Energy in the reactors.”

“What?”

“Dark Energy.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know how they collect it but I saw how they store it in the reactor.”

“Those ships have moved into the void and are trying to follow us.”

“Can they?”

“Not if you don’t use your telepathy.”

Chris thought for a moment and said, “How fast are they, Willow?”

“Chris, don’t make this a race.”

“Can we outrun them?”

“They’re not gaining on us.”

“Are you at full speed?”

“No.”

“I’m going to talk with them.”

Audrey shook her head, “I don’t think that’s wise.”

“It’s worth the risk. They weren’t the attackers.”

“We don’t know if they attacked that other species first.”

“It’s worth the risk. I’m going to see if they’re willing to communicate.” Chris stared at Audrey and after a moment she sighed and shrugged. Chris focused on the grey ships and thought, “We are not here to be a danger to you.” Chris heard nothing but the ships all turned toward them. “I am looking for a way to defend my species and I’m hoping we can come to an agreement where we can possibly help each other.” Again he was greeted with silence and Chris said, “I’ll come back after you’ve had the opportunity to discuss this with your leaders.” Chris leaned back and said, “Willow, get us out of here.” Willow activated three reactors to the thrusters and went to full power. The small Attack Pod removed the cloud around it and blasted away from the pursuing grey ships. They fell behind at an incredible speed and soon disappeared in the distance.

The Leader of the pursuing ships watched the small ship accelerate away at an incredible speed and shook his body. “Return to our space.”

“But that ship knows where we are.”

“And just how do you intend to catch them?”

“They said they’d come back.”

“And we’ll get the opportunity to fail to catch them again. I hope you noticed that that vessel did not appear on our scanners. If they don’t broadcast their thoughts, we’ll never know where they are. Maybe we should talk with them.”

“That is not something you can decide.”

“I don’t want to make this decision. Send the recording of this chase back to the planet and they’ll decide what we are going to do.”

“Yes,Commander.”

• • •

“They’re going to see if their leaders will be willing to communicate.”

Audrey shook her head, “We can’t give them our Dark Matter Technology if they’re an aggressive species.”

“Willow, go back to where those attackers jumped away. See if they left a skip trace.”

“On my way.”

“A
manda, I need you and Trevor to start working on weapons we can use against the Invaders.”

“Lukas, we’re about as far as we can go without a breakthrough and those can never be planned.”

“No, but they sometimes happen when you’re working hard on what you know. You’ve seen how launching a volley of Dark Matter Rounds into their fleets caused them massive damage. The missiles were never used.”

“They don’t work in the void.”

“Then why are we building them?”

“Because they can make a difference in normal space. Gunny and Kitch used them and killed thousands of their ships.”

“Then those missiles should be stored at the planet and the space on our warships should be used for more DM rounds.” Amanda stared at Lukas and he said, “I’m not criticizing you or Trevor. Perhaps this is a good reason to have defensive satellites above the planet. However, we have to learn from our mistakes and do a better job. You and Trevor are the ones we are counting on to make a difference.”

“We’ll see what we can do.”

“Thanks, Amanda.” Amanda left the office and Lukas saw Salud come in. “Hi, Love. What’s going on?”

“We’ve finally got enough housing for everyone. There’s still a lot of infrastructure to be completed but the end is at last in sight. Why was Amanda here?”

“We have to start developing new weapons to counter the numbers we’re going to have to face.”

“Do you see anything we could do differently?”

“We need to change some things on our battleships but nothing that would make a big difference. The invader will have time to rebuild their fleets so we might be facing twice the number if that other species in M-87 join them.”

“If we don’t stop them there, we’ll eventually be facing them here.”

“I know. I know.”

“This is probably not a good time but I have some news.”

“What is that?”

“We are going to be three.”

“What?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Lukas’ expression changed five times before he jumped out of his chair and rushed over to Salud and took her in his arms. “We’ve must stop them, Lukas! I want our baby to be raised on Earth.”

“I love you so much.”

“And I love you, too.” Lukas held her tightly and swore he would make the future safe for his children.

• • •

“They didn’t leave skip traces with those four force fields but some of their damaged ships did leave traces.”

“Follow them and see where they lead us. I want to hear what they’re saying.”

“We’ll catch them, I think.”

Audrey watched the void ahead of Willow and saw nothing in the blackness. She was forced to agree with Chris, he was definitely not a ten year old. His mind was more advanced than a child that age. How could that have happened? She continued to stare out of the viewport and suddenly thought that it was almost like his mind wasn’t human. She glanced at him and then she knew. The only non-human mind on the planet was Lukas. She knew he saved Chris’s mother from an attack by a street gang before he was born. She looked at Chris again and pulled up a picture of Lukas from ten years earlier. There just wasn’t any doubt. She started shaking her head and Chris said, “I guess you figured it out. Mom said you were one of the smartest officers in Fleet.”

“What?”

“I saw the picture you pulled up on your wrist unit. You’ve put it together, haven’t you?”

“Who knows about this?”

“It appears more and more are seeing it now that I’ve got an adult body. Both of my parents now know, along with Salud, Chad, and Julie. If I don’t do something to alter my appearance, pretty much everyone will know.”

“How does Salud feel about this?”

“She knew about me before she and Lukas became an item. The Sentinel told her in their first meeting. She’s come to terms with it.”

“So you’re pretty much an alien as well?”

“My mother is human. Lukas did not have a human parent, Willow altered his DNA when he fled to Earth from the Myot Warships.”

“Then you’re different.”

“I’m telepathic, Lukas isn’t.”

“Do you have his speed?”

“What do you mean?”

“You must have seen the recording of his taking on the pirates?”

Chris was silent for a moment and said, “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve only had this body long enough to leave. That’s something I’ll have to see about when we get off the ship.”

“The attackers are ahead of us.”

Chris and Audrey turned to the monitor and saw the distant glowing stardrives. “Willow, can you hear their transmissions?”

“They aren’t telepathic so, yes I can hear them.”

“We don’t know their language, can you hear their thoughts and convert them to electronic form and play them on the wall speaker?”

“Yes, I need a moment to find the Leader of their fleet.”

“You’re doing that so I can hear.”

Chris nodded, “I must confess that I was really bothered that I was going to have to take you with me on this trip but you’ve been a real asset so far. You need to be included in the loop.”

“Can’t you just send what you’re hearing to my mind?”

“I can. I should have thought of that.”

“Willow, play it on the speaker and record it. We’re going to need to send this back to fleet to let them know what’s going on out here. This may be an invader in the making and we can’t allow them to grow unchecked.”

“I’ve found him.”

The wall speaker buzzed a moment and then they heard, “I lost more than five hundred ships, Excellency. Our ships are not a match for theirs.”

“Were you able to destroy any of theirs?”

“We killed about three hundred but it took more than ten of my ships firing on each of them to break through their force field.”

“Are you saying they are more advanced than we are?”

“The only way to defeat them will be to overwhelm them with numbers. Two thousand ships left their planet to join in the battle so I jumped the ships away.”

“Do you think they have more than that?”

“There’s no way to tell. Everything is hidden inside a force field around the planet. My scanners determined that it would take a massive barrage to break through that force field.”

“I was hoping we could take the planet for settlement but this is an enemy we must remove before it can take us on. Did the scouts find another planet where they settled on?”

“No! During the six months we watched them, no ships came in from another location and none of their ships left the planetary system except for brief jumps out to interstellar space. I don’t know what they were doing out there. They appeared to enter normal space and fly at their fastest speed for about an hour. Then they would jump back to their planet.”

“Perhaps their ships need to be run to operate efficiently?”

“Nothing else makes sense.”

“I have eight fleets that will complete their conquests within four months. We’ll hold them here to go back to that planet once they all arrive.”

“I will start repairs on my ships that were damaged, Excellency.”

• • •

“Willow, send this information back to Fleet along with everything you recorded.”

“I’m going to have to send it with a microprobe. Transmitting across the black hole will distort the video images.”

“Turn around and move far enough away for the probe to not be detected when you launch it.”

“What are you thinking about doing, Chris?”

“Tell me what you think our Leaders will do about this. You’re a combat tested officer, I’d like to know what you would do as well?”

Audrey’s lips tightened and the left corner of her mouth went up slightly, “This is a clear and present danger to Eden.”

“I see it that way as well. Go on.”

“We’re going to have to confront this civilization and pull its claws.”

“Willow, can we do that?”

“My readings on their ships indicate our DM Technology will penetrate their force fields. However, unlike the invaders, their ships do not have a powerful magnetic field around them.”

“They’re not using Dark Matter.”

“That’s correct, Audrey.”

“Can their beams break through our force fields?”

“If they get close enough they can. However, there is one disturbing issue.”

“What is that?”

“The Leader that the Fleet Leader reported in to has a different mind.”

Chris sat up straight in his chair, “What are you saying?”

“I don’t think it was located on the planet those attackers were moving in on. There is a possibility that more than one species is being used to attack other planets. If that’s true, we really don’t know the capability of the other ships they might use.”

“Include that information in what you’re sending and suggest to Fleet that they might want to send some of Admiral Barber’s scouts here to start taking a look at the other fleets as they arrive.” Audrey smiled. That was an adult decision. She realized that Chris should be in command of this mission. He wasn’t missing anything. What he said next really surprised her. “Willow, were those grey ships using any electronic communications?”