Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground (29 page)

“Does that surprise you?”

“Not really. We’re finding they are not being helpful in any way.”

“We would be doing the same. The Flock Leader should have read the reports on that quadrant before flying so close to that moon. You’ve seen the reports coming in; how bad is it?”

“This galaxy is far from being tamed. Most of the planets with intelligent life have been brought under our dominion but more than a third of the galaxy has not been searched for intelligent life. Those that are still hidden are attacking us before they’re found and some of those we’ve conquered are still fighting. I’d like to blame the Orange Beings for this mess but they lost a lot of ground when their ships were ordered out to invade the spiral galaxy.”

“I suspect we may be ordered to do the same.”

“That would be a mistake.”

“You’re talking to your kin. Find out what happened.”

“Do you suspect treachery?”

“No ship has ever been successfully destroyed in the void there. If our ships were, something out of the ordinary has happened. Find out and contact me. I have to inform the Ultimate of our progress and I need to know about this before I make that report.”

“The ships investigating what happened will arrive within an hour.”

The monitor went dark and the First Leader scowled. This did not look good. He knew his leaders were celebrating their upgraded status but he feared they were hasty in doing so. The Orange Beings didn’t protest their demotion. That told him more than anything that this whole enterprise represented trouble in a big way. First, what happened to those two ships?

J
inks walked into Fleet Operations and saw Salud sitting in Lukas’ office with Eve playing on the floor. “You look stressed.”

Salud looked up and shook her head, “I had no idea how many questions Lukas had to handle every day. If they were simple and could be handled by those out in the cities, I’d feel better but they aren’t. I didn’t really appreciate all that he was doing to keep things running smoothly. Why are you here?”

Jinks sighed, “I have another issue for your attention.”

Salud fell back in her chair and Eve watched her closely, “What is it?”

“Lukas sent word back that Chad shouldn’t send the pods to Earth until the support structures were built for the pilots. However, the force field is not up and operational and I think we should go ahead and send them.”

“Have you spoken to Chris about this?”

“He’s out there with Lukas.”

“I know, but Piper can link you in to him.”

“What’s going on?”

Salud stared at him for a moment and smiled, “It appears Lukas and Willow have converted their disruptor to use Dark Energy from one of their reactors. They’ve blasted two warships in the void without leaving a trace of how it happened.”

Jinks stared at her for a moment and sat down in the chair in front of her desk. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“No one did but Willow ran a conduit and put a switch in line to switch between nuclear and Dark Energy. The Pods are going to have to have the modification made before they’re sent to Earth.”

“Did Chris say how long that might take?”

“He says his engineers on the Montana ran six conduits from their reactors and six disruptors now use Dark Energy. He says he doesn’t have a switch on board but he thinks the modification will be simple to put in place.”

“Does the beam work?”

“According to Chris, he watched what happened through his connection with Willow and said it is devastating. I think you should start sending Chad’s Pods to the manufacturing facilities and ask for an Engineer by the name of Barry Alonso.”

“Who is he?”

“He’s the one Willow used to make the change. Once the pods are modified, you can start sending those done to Earth. I’ve notified Joey to send half of our building contractors to Earth to expedite the construction of the spaceport and the munitions factory. I’ve already sent half of the Dark Matter Converters back to the Magnetar in the Milky Way.”

Jinks smiled, “Salud, you are really something else.”

“Thanks, Jinks. By the way, how many of the New Battleships do we have?”

“Ten and we’re not building anymore at the moment.”

“I’ve ordered Pod Construction to go to full speed. It appears they are now the ships we’ll be depending on to defend us.”

“That’s the smart thing to do. We can build thousands of them in the time it takes to build one battleship. We’ll start production on them again once we get a handle on defending Earth from attack.”

“I’ve ordered the existing new battleships to be coated at the central black hole and the new conduits installed. I’ll wait on Lukas to decide what he wants done with them. In the meantime, I’m sending them to Earth to assist in its defense.”

“I’ll be going to Earth as well. Sarah’s fleet of Defense Pods will be done once Chad’s Fleet is completed and she’ll join me there.”

“What about Julie?”

“Her fleet will remain here to defend Eden. She agrees that Summer is getting to the age where she can’t leave her.”

Salud nodded and shook her head slowly, “It feels like we’re about to go back into the fire again.”

Jinks nodded, “Perhaps we won’t be the ones burned this time.”

“I pray you’re right.”

• • •

“Willow, I don’t see why the Orange Ships were selected over these?.”

“These new Invaders’ ships are more powerful…but you’re missing one thing.”

“What is that?”

“They don’t depend on missiles, they have a beam that works in the void and it’s more effective.”

“But they don’t use the Dark Matter Cloud to hide them.”

Lukas sat back in his chair. He slowly shook his head and took a deep breath. He blew it out slowly and said, “Which would allow the Orange Warships to move in close to their targets without being seen and fire from close range.”

“That coupled with their higher speed gives them a decided advantage over the Green Warships.”

“Why didn’t they use it when they invaded?”

“The cloud will be blow away when they’re traveling at full speed. It’s only good in space battles or when sneaking up on an opponent. They were forced to fly at their maximum speed to arrive at the Milky Way. Their new ships are a vast improvement over the New Invaders.”

“Do you think the Leaders in M-87 know about these new developments?”

“I tend to doubt it.”

“I do, too. If they knew about them, they wouldn’t have made the change or they would have made them give them to Green Ships.”

“That’s how I see it.”

“I think we’ve seen enough here. This galaxy is going to be trouble for a long time. We should go to M-87 and take a look at what we’re up against in numbers.”

“I’d like to take a look at what the Orange Beings are doing first.”

“Why? They won’t be coming next time.”

“We don’t know if both of them might be sent. I believe the real danger to us is the Orange Civilization. I’d like to see if we really know their capabilities.”

“We just saw their newest ships.”

“Lukas, humor me.”

Lukas laughed, “I’ve learned not to question an escape pod on issues involving survival. I’m with you Willow. Let’s go see what’s going on.”

“Leaving it to the professionals again?”

“Absolutely. Lead the way.” Willow dropped out of normal space and went to full speed. She listened to the thoughts in M-87 as they moved closer and she focused her search for key thoughts; new engines, thrusters, beams, missiles, reactors, and keeping something secret. Before they arrived at the giant galaxy, she had five places to search.

• • •

“Chad, I don’t like this.”

“You know I have to go, Julie. Gunny, Kitch, Indura, Windy, and all the others deserve my best effort.”

“But Summer deserves to have her father.”

“So did all the children killed on Earth. I’ve done my duty at making sure Eden was protected. Now it’s time I did my duty.”

“I should be going with you.”

“Eden still needs you here…and so does Summer.”

Julie wrapped her arms around Chad, “I already miss you!”

“I’m only several hours away. I’ll be coming home to make sure you don’t have to miss me too much.”

“See that you do!”

“You know I will.” Chad kissed his wife and daughter and climbed into his pod.

Julie shouted, “Take care of him Trio!”

“You know I will.”

Julie watched Chad’s Attack Pod lift off the Space Port’s concrete pad and move slowly into the sky. Summer waved and Julie waved with her. She had to marry a warrior. She felt her tears but knew she couldn’t hold him back any longer. She wiped her tears and took Summer to her pod. Her fleet of pods was being updated and she knew she had more than she could do…but…she missed him so much. She wiped her tears again and prayed for his safety.

• • •

“Trio, notify the fleet to fall in and initiate their drives for the initial skip.”

“Done.”

“Let’s go home.”

Chad moved to the front of the ten thousand Attack Pods and disappeared from normal space. He looked at the white splotch in the void far ahead, the Milky Way. This time, the invaders were going to pay for their actions. He was back in a Pod and he never felt so alive. He pressed a button and Born Free blared out over his speakers. His pilots heard the familiar music and felt their hearts beat faster. It was back to war and they were ready for whatever came their way. The other thirty thousand Attack Pods would be joining them over the next few weeks. Earth was coming alive again and humans were back on its surface. Chad hoped the invaders wouldn’t keep him waiting.

• • •

“Lukas, I’m not sure about going to that next site.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve detected thousands of small disturbances in the void.”

“Probes?”

“That’s what I think they are and I’ve got to believe that they can detect the dark cloud around us.”

“Why do you think that?”

“This is the domain of the Orange Civilization and they intend to keep this area secret, even from their own civilization. They would have to be able to detect Dark Matter.”

“This is where they’re doing most of their development.”

“I know. I think we’ve learned that they’ve developed a new reactor and their ships will be even faster than the ones they sent to Earth. If we’re going in, we shouldn’t go alone.”

“You think it’s that dangerous?”

“I do.” Lukas was silent and Willow waited for him to respond. When he didn’t, Willow said, “We can’t detect ships that are stationary with a Dark Matter Cloud around them. I can hear thoughts from more ships than I can count and they’re close. This is not something we should do.”

• • •

Chris looked at Hawk, “Fire up the engines. Lukas might be doing something stupid.” Chris looked at Audrey, “How many disrupters have conduits?”

“Forty. What’s going on?”

“I hope nothing. Sound battle stations.”

• • •

“Willow, we need this information.”

“Not at the moment. We still haven’t looked at what we’re going to have to face from the other side of this galaxy. If we enter that space, we’ll be surrounded in less time than you can imagine. I’m telling you that there are thousands of Invader Ships there and they will see us.”

“If I order you to do it, will you?”

“I really hope you don’t put me in that position Lukas. I made a promise to Salud and you did too. You’re going to break that promise if you go.” Chris raised his arm and held it over his head. Hawk watched him closely with his hand over the thruster controls. “What do you think Salud would tell me if she were here?”

Lukas sighed, “You know what she would say. Eden needs the information we’ve collected about the Green Civilization. That will be lost if we’re destroyed.” Lukas stared at the display and said, “We could send a probe back with all the information we’ve uncovered.”

“But no one there will
know
how to use it like you.” Willow could hear his thoughts and he fired his last round, “Would you allow her to go in if she were here?”

“Willow, that’s not fair!”

“Would you?!”

Lukas sighed and slowly shook his head. He gritted his teeth and said, “Take us out of here.”

• • •

Chris fell back in his chair and shook his head at Hawk. He lowered his arm slowly and sighed. His father was so much more than he knew. He felt a sense of pride of being Lukas’ son. He knew keeping a promise was something he would never forget from what he just witnessed.

• • •

Willow backed away and activated his thrusters. As she flew away more than a thousand missiles were launched behind her. Lukas saw the missiles appear out of nowhere and they were gaining on Willow until she reached her top speed. She ran away from them and abruptly changed course as another salvo was launched ahead of them. “It appears you were right.”

“I hate being right about this.”

“Can you avoid them?”

“I can probably destroy them with the DE Disruptor beams but I don’t want to reveal that weapon. This isn’t a great deal different from fleeing the Myot and Welken fleets. I’m not going to maximum speed. I’m going to allow them to chase me out into open space. Once we’re out of scanner range, I’ll go to maximum speed.”

“Thanks, Willow.”

“For what?”

“For not playing fair. If we were caught in the middle of those ships, we wouldn’t have been able to avoid being hit.”

“We will eventually have to allow one of those missiles to hit a ship to determine their capabilities.”

“I think we could handle one.”

“I do, too; however, now is not the time.”

“Were you able to scan those missiles?”

“They are force field protected and four times faster than the old ones.”

“You were right. This species is the one that’s the biggest danger. But for the moment, we have to deal with the others.”

“Let’s go see what that entails, shall we?”

“By all means; lead the way.”

• • •

The Fleet Supal leaped out of its tub and screamed, “YOU SHOULD HAVE FIRED SOONER!”

“You ordered us to wait until we had them surrounded.”