Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground (19 page)

Audrey wasn’t telepathic but she saw Loree stare at her and then look at Chris. She knew what she was thinking. She saw her look at Lance and she sighed in relief. She was not going to be a competitor. Audrey didn’t fight the thoughts but at that moment decided that it was going to be Chris or no one. Now she was going to have to be patient and allow Chris to come to the same conclusion. She leaned over to Lance and whispered, “What do you think about the Admiral?”

Lance looked at Audrey, looked quickly at Loree, and then turned back to her, “She’s really special.”

Audrey nodded, “She really is Lance. I think she feels the same way about you.”

“Get out of here.”

“Keep an eye on her. You’ll see.” And he did.

• • •

Emily shouted, “I’M MOVING IN! MAKE THE SCAN QUICKLY!!”

The LaGrange rushed forward and Lance pressed four buttons simultaneously on his panel. Audrey was shocked at how large his hands were to make that kind of reach across his panel. “Get us out of here!”

Emily hit the stardrive and left normal space and turned the LaGrange on a dime and accelerated after the rapidly disappearing battleship. In normal space, three hundred battleships blasted away from the defensive line and headed out toward the source of the powerful scan. They arrived and found nothing. Chris saw the battle ship growing larger and looked at Emily, “They can’t detect us behind the cloud, Sir. I’m not going to get closer than three thousand miles.”

“Willow, who’s on that ship?”

“A fleet commander is going back to his fleet to wrap up an invasion. He’s been ordered to take his ships to the first planet once he’s done.”

Chris nodded and Loree said, “I don’t know if getting involved in the wars happening in this galaxy is a good idea.”

Chris looked at her, “When do most of the technological advances take place, Admiral?”

Loree shrugged, “During war. You think this will better prepare us for going home?”

“I do and in the process we might make a positive difference in this galaxy.” Chris stared at the battleship ahead of them and looked at Loree, “I’m stepping down from your chair.”

“Why?”

“I want you to blast that ship into the smallest pieces possible.”

“Again, why?”

“He’s been ordered to kill every being on the planet. We might not be able to prevent that happening but we can at least delay it.”

Chris stepped down from the command chair and Loree sat down in it, “Lance, did you get a good scan of those battleships around the planet?”

“I did, Sir. They use the layered force fields and their beams are nuclear powered.”

“Frank, what can you determine from the scan?”

“If we can get close enough, our disruptors should penetrate the four fields.”

“How close?”

“Inside five miles.”

“Emily, make it happen once we determine where it’s going.” Emily nodded and her eyes narrowed.

“I know where it’s going. I’ve seen the coordinates in their navigator’s mind.”

Loree smiled, “Frank, bring one rotary gun on line and fire one round at that ship.”

Audrey looked up from Lance’s panel, “What are you planning, Sir?”

“I’m not going to allow that vessel to get close to its destination and run the risk of having to fight off other ships. We’re going to knock down its drive field and follow that ship into normal space. Emily, get us close.”

Frank looked up from his console, “One round is loaded and the disruptors are charged to maximum.”

The LaGrange rushed up on the brightly glowing battleship and Frank fired the Dark Matter bullet. The bright drive field flashed out and Emily moved the LaGrange into normal space three miles away from the large vessel. Six of the port side disruptors discharged and the force fields around the enemy ship flashed out of existence one after the other. A moment later, the entire middle of the ship was vaporized. Three more disruptors fired and the pieces that survived the initial salvo were blown into dust.

“Good job, Emily, back into the void.”

The LaGrange disappeared, leaving an expanding cloud of gas and small particles behind. Loree stood up and pointed to the chair. Chris shook his head and smiled, “Admiral, I must confess that I am highly impressed with the professionalism and skill of your crew. That was amazing.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stone. The ship is yours.”

Lance looked up, “Sir, that ship’s distress beacon was located in the bow and went off before it was destroyed.”

Loree looked at Frank, “You know where to aim next time.”

“Yes Sir.”

Chris stepped out of the chair and Loree sat back down, “If we were headed directly toward that ship’s destination, I expect the rescue party to be coming directly this way. Emily move us ninety degrees away from our former heading and keep your eyes out for them. We’ll swing around them and head toward the planet after we’re clear.”

Emily turned the giant battleship and accelerated at three quarters speed. Lance looked up, “The enemy ships are behind us and are accelerating toward the site of that ship’s destruction.”

“Willow, I can use those coordinates now.”

Lance smiled, “I have them and I’ve sent them to Emily.”

Loree looked at Emily and nodded. She started to step down but Chris put his hand on her shoulder, “Why don’t you stay where you are for the moment.”

Loree nodded and settled in. Audrey watched her crew perform and now had a model of what she would expect on her ship. The Admiral was incredible. Chris looked at Audrey and gave a thumbs up. Audrey smiled and nodded. She saw Chris and Audrey out of the corner of her eyes and smiled. She still had it. Impressing them meant a lot to her. She began to hope that mankind was going to have a chance against the invaders.

• • •

They arrived at the planet and found just six hundred battleships in orbit. The planet had been bombarded extensively and the local populations were in a state of shock. Lance looked at his panel and said, “They’re preparing to drop troop carriers to the surface.”

“How did you make that determination?”

“Their landing bay doors are open and some of them are starting to move out.”

Lukas watched the scanner monitor and shook his head. “Willow.”

“Yes.”

“Are you able to get a transmission out to Fleet?”

“Not with the black hole between us.”

“See if you can get Piper.”

“What do you want, Chris.”

“Can you get Lukas and connect him to me?”

“Why.”

“I intend to stop the destruction of a planet.”

“Stand by.”

“Chris?”

“Lukas, I don’t have much time but I want you to send Chad’s fleet to the coordinates I’m sending you.”

“Why do you want that?”

“A planet has been bombarded and the Attackers are going to start landing operations momentarily. We need to see how we match up to their ships and now would be a good time to do it.”

Lukas looked over his shoulder, “Send them.”

Chris looked at Lance, “How many ships were going to the rescue of their fleet commander.”

“Two hundred.”

“Lukas, tell Chad to send about four hundred of his ships to the second coordinate where they’ll find about two hundred Attacker Ships. Send the rest to the first coordinate. Willow, send them the coordinates.”

“They have them, Chad has confirmed their arrival.”

“Piper, thank you for helping us.”

“I’m glad to do it.”

Loree looked at Chris, “Why are you doing this?”

“For the reason I stated. Most of the Attacker Fleet must have left once the planet was hit. We need to find out how we measure up.”

Loree looked at the huge fires burning on the planet, “There are two answers to every question, Mr. Stone.”

“Oh?”

“A good one and the real one. This reminds me of what happened to Earth. I’d do this simply because of that.”

Chris smiled, “You are wise beyond your years, Admiral.”

“Coming from a ten year old, that’s a great compliment.” The crew laughed and Chris turned red.

• • •

Audrey watched the monitor and shook her head, “How much longer will it take them to arrive?”

Chris smiled, “Patience is a meal best served slowly.”

Thousands of troop carriers were now forming up outside the battleships and it wasn’t going to be long before they entered the planet’s atmosphere. The first group started toward the planet and suddenly all of them exploded. Thousands of battleships appeared in normal space around the Attacker’s Fleet and opened fire with their disruptors. Attacker ships began exploding in a massive wave that ripped through their ranks. Many were able to fire their beams and several battleships were damaged when they were hit by multiple shots. But before any more damage could be done, the overwhelming number of attackers demolished the enemy fleet. Loree looked at Frank, who said, “Their beams are as powerful as our main disruptors, Sir.”

Loree shook her head and saw the thousands of Attack Pods that moved in with Chad’s fleet destroying the troop carriers that tried to run for the planet’s surface. None of them were able to land troops although one did manage to land before it was blasted into rubble.

Chris activated his wrist unit, “Thank you, Admiral.”

“I am thankful we could assist you, Chris.”

“You need to get out of here. I’m sure they sent a message back to their fleets.”

“They’ll probably destroy this planet if we leave.”

“We’re not ready to take them on yet. We still don’t know the magnitude of the forces we’d have to face. We’ve done what we can.”

Chad nodded and said, “Let us know if you need us.”

“Get the recordings back to Fleet to see how strong their weapons are. We’re going to need that information.” Chad nodded and the small display went dark. Chris looked at Loree, “We need to go back to the previous planet and find another ship to follow.”

“I think we should skip out of here and see what my fleet has been able to uncover so far.”

Chris nodded and Loree looked at Emily, “Skip us out to deep space above the galaxy.” Emily turned to her console and the LaGrange entered the void and skipped away at maximum speed.

Audrey looked at Chris, “The ships that were damaged were brought inside another ship’s drive field and towed away.” Chris nodded and looked at the tactical monitor. The microprobe they left behind had thousands of small points of light moving toward the planet. He prayed for the doomed populations still on the planet’s surface. He saw them arrive and then suddenly turn and scatter in thousands of different directions. His eyebrows came together and Audrey said, “Admiral Mitchell is incredible. He had his ships deliberately leave skip traces for them to follow. His fleet is running away from the central black hole and is leading them out into the far side of the galaxy.”

Chris smiled. Finding who killed their ships would take precedence over continuing an attack against a bombed out planet. The planet was given a stay of execution. That was more than he expected.

• • •

“Who attacked our ships?”

“We’ve followed their skip traces for more than forty thousand light years and they all ended at the same place.”

“How may traces were there?”

“About a thousand, Excellency.”

“Our ships were severely outnumbered.”

“It does appear so.”

“Why do you say appeared?”

“If they were able to eliminate their skip trails, we really don’t know how many actually participated in the attack. There could have been many more than that.”

“You make a good point. Do you think they ran toward their origin?”

“I wouldn’t have.”

“So we have no idea who was behind this?”

“No, we don’t.”

“Could it have been the Grey Ships?”

“This is a long way from their planet.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I guess it’s possible but they’ve not left their planet in the past.”

“It may be that they’ve not been attacked in the past and are scouting our forces.”

“That is possible.”

“Recall your ships to the gathering.”

“What about the planet?”

“We’ll worry about that after we eliminate the Grey Ships. Recall your ships!”

T
he image of the Andromeda Galaxy was on the scanner monitor and it was beautiful. It made everyone homesick; it looked so much like the Milky Way, only larger. Loree looked at the image on the monitor and turned to Lance, “I want you to freeze that image and set it up for expansion or contraction. Barbie, is your scanner capable of maintaining the details of each star?”

“I can keep the stars in focus but we’ll have to move a lot closer for me to see the planets.”

“That’s ok. How many ships have reported in on planets they’ve uncovered?”

“Eight hundred planets have been found that have ships gathering at the first planet we visited.” Chris whistled at the number. “Are they all located in the same sector of the galaxy?”

“Two of them are further out toward the rim but all the others are within eight hundred light years of each other.”

“Change the color of the stars where those planets are located.” Everyone watched the monitor and started seeing stars changing color to red. After a few moments, the image of Andromeda showed the eight hundred stars. “What can you tell me about the two planets out toward the edge of the galaxy?”

“Both of them have warships around them but there is only one city on the planet that appears to be near a mining operation. The two Commanders that found them say that they are probably the source of a rare mineral the Attackers need. The ships are there to protect the mines.”

Loree nodded and said, “Change their color to violet.” The two stars immediately changed color. “So the real center of their civilizations is located in that quadrant where the majority of the red stars are located?”

“That is correct.”

“Bring the view in closer.” The area began to grow larger until it filled the monitor. “Did any of these planets have something about them out of the ordinary?”

“Ninety six of them have large concentrations of warships in orbit above them. They appear to be the planets where the majority of their shipbuilding is taking place. One of them in particular is heavily overpopulated.”