Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror (20 page)

“You want to drop it near M-87 so that if another species in the universe uses a barrier drive it will lead them there?”

Lukas looked at Allison, “Have I ever told you how smart I think he is.”

“I think you just did, Sir.”

Lukas smiled, “That’s exactly why. However, if we ever go out to find out if other Legends exist, we’ll have the scouts looking for them dropping beacons using a different frequency near their locations.” Lukas paused, “I also think you should take a look at the simulators. You might not learn anything new but you might see something that needs to be included in their programming.”

“We’ll do that tomorrow. I’ll also forward my conversation with that being in M-86 to your desk.”

Lukas smiled, “Tell Michael to come see us. Luke loves playing with him.”

“I will. Thanks for being patient with me, Lukas.”

“It is I that appreciate your patience. I could see you weren’t happy.”

“No, I guess I wasn’t.”

Lukas smiled, “See you later.”

They watched him walk over to the Admirals waiting to meet with him and Allison sighed, “He’s really something.”

“Yes he is.” Chris turned to Allison, “Are you ready to build that sand fort?”

“Not really.”

Chris’s disappointment was clear, “Why not?”

“Because that fort is going to take most of a day and we don’t have enough time to do it today. I’ll take a raincheck and do it when we have more time.”

“Where are you going now?”

“I’m going to have Trevor check out the ship and see if there’s been any changes while we’ve been gone.”

“Always the perfectionist.”

“When it comes to living or dying…”

Chris laughed, “Let me know what you find out.”

“I’ll see you at the simulators tomorrow and let you know.” Allison turned and walked out of the huge conference room. Chris saw she hadn’t pinned up her hair and he was surprised at how long it was. It hung past her shoulders and looked like a brilliant light surrounding her head. He blew out a breath and turned to talk with Stoney about scheduling a simulator for him and Allison. He finally left and looked forward to seeing Michael. He immediately asked about Allison and showed his disappointment at her not coming. He finally smiled when Chris said, “Maybe next time. Today I start teaching you how to surf.”

• • •

The sessions on the simulators eventually ended and Stoney shook his head, “I’m glad you came. I didn’t know about flying the ships manually. We need to set up an advanced program to bring the pilots back in after they’ve mastered flying it normally.”

“Don’t mention it, Dad.” Chris hugged him, “We’re shipping out in the morning. Keep an eye on Michael.”

“We love doing it.”

“I’ve started him skim boarding so he can learn how to surf and he may pester you to take him.”

“I’ll let Kathy take care of that.”

Chris nodded as Stoney walked away to assist some students still on the simulators. Chris looked at Allison, “How about a meal before I run over to see Michael?”

“Sure.”

They ordered a meal and enjoyed it immensely. Weeks of eating food pellets made the normal food taste extraordinary. Allison brought him up to speed on the new developments and he questioned her at length. Finally, after a few moments of silence Chris said, “Allison.”

She looked at him, “Yes.”

“I know about your family.” Allison’s smile disappeared. “I’ve wondered why you never leave the ship whenever we have leave. So, I contacted Fleet Personnel and asked about your background.”

Allison’s eyes narrowed and she stared at him in silence. Chris waited for her to respond and she eventually said, “I was about to tell you that it was none of your business but I guess anything known about those under your command is your business.”

“You don’t like that I looked?”

“No, I don’t. That’s something that’s personal.”

“All I wanted to say is that I would love to have you be with my family as much as possible. I could possibly be the brother you never had.” Allison stared at Chris and then stood up and picked up her tray. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Allison turned and he saw something in her eyes that made him lean back. “You will never be my brother!” She turned and walked away and said over her shoulder, “Never!” Chris watched her go and knew he had made a terrible mistake. He went and picked up Michael and that evening when he put him to bed he punched her number on his wrist unit, “Allison, I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to hurt you.”

Allison stared at him and then sighed, “Forget it. Let’s just forget it happened and go back to being normal.”

Chris nodded, “I’d really like that. Thank you for accepting my apology.”

“No problem.” The call ended and Allison sat on her bed for a long time staring at her wrist unit. She finally took it off and got ready for bed.

C
hris looked at the fleet of large Orange Ships going through maneuvers above the planet where they were being built. Allison’s demeanor was normal and it appeared she had forgotten what happened. He watched the ships and shook his head, “I think the ships in M-86 would stand no chance against these ships, even with the fusion reactor and new disruptors.”

“I hate to agree with you but you’re right. I do think the M-86 ships will be slightly faster.”

“I agree but the speed of the Orange Ships has gone up considerably. I don’t know how strong their beams are; they’re using training beams in these maneuvers.”

Allison looked at her panel and then looked at Chris, “There are ten of the Orange Ships moving in normal space toward a large asteroid. They might be taking target practice.”

“Send me the coordinates.” Chris saw them appear on his drive board and he skipped the ship through the barrier toward the asteroid. They arrived twenty miles from it in the barrier as the ten Progen Warships moved in. The ten ships stopped thirty miles away from the giant rock and the disruptors on one of them started glowing. “Record this!”

“I’m on it.” Chris watched the Progen Battleship fire a brilliant beam at the end of the asteroid. A large piece of it was cut off. Chris’s eyes narrowed as Allison said, “A large ship is being towed in the void below us.”

Chris looked at his monitor and saw a large black ship being towed by a large shuttle. The shuttle dropped the line to it and the Black Ship’s force field came on. “Allison, is that one of the ships we saw in M-86?”

“It looks like it but without doing a full scan, I won’t be able to tell for certain.” Allison paused and smiled, “And you know about making a scan without proper preparation.”

Chris laughed, “Indeed I do. What do you think they’re doing?”

“What we do. They’re checking out the weapons on two newly built warships.”

“We couldn’t have asked for something this good.”

“I know.” Chris looked at the monitor tracking what was happening in normal space and saw the ships move out to forty miles. Once again the asteroid was hit on the end and another piece was sheared off. “They’re launching a missile!”

Chris tore his eyes from the monitor and looked at the monitor showing the void. A missile leapt out from one of the ten orange warships that had dropped into the void. The missile closed the gap between the two ships so fast he had to replay the recording of what happened in slow motion. The missile hit the Black Ship, blew through its force field, and burned a huge hole through the center of it. “This is not good!”

“It’s not as bad as it looks.”

Chris looked at Allison, “Oh?”

“The new ships can handle the beam.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because we also practice with our weapons on asteroids. By comparing how long it took for the piece to shear off with our own beams, they aren’t powerful enough to penetrate the force field or the silver coating on our new ships.”

“What about ten of them?”

Allison looked at her panel and shrugged, “That may be a different story.”

“What about the missile?”

“They fired it from twenty miles. The new ships can easily avoid them by going into the barrier and allowing them to fly right by. They’re traveling so fast that, if they miss their target, they’ll run out of fuel before they could turn and come back.” Chris raised his eyebrows. “I had Alley do an analysis of it. It appears a force field generator has taken up space for fuel. Only a fifth of it is used for fuel.”

“They built it with our former ships in mind.” Allison nodded. “A ship that can’t go into the barrier will be in real trouble.”

“Our old pods and battleships can handle a few of them but a salvo of thousands would take out those that are hit by eight or more.”

“We won’t be able to face off against them like we did in our battle in M-84.”

“No, their beams would start hitting us from fifty miles out and the missiles from even further.”

“And they still outnumber us by the millions.” Allison shrugged. “We have to develop new tactics if we’re going to use the pods and battleships.”

“This will require some rethinking about how to attack them.”

“CHRIS!”

“Go ahead, Loree!”

“Something has entered M-87and is destroying all of our probes ahead of it on a line from the edge of the galaxy directly toward the Legends’ planet. The probes have not seen what is killing them.”

Chris’s eyes went wide, “If you have any of your scouts near that line, get them out!”

“Already done but we have no way to know what’s doing it.”

“I’m going into the barrier and see if we can find out.” Chris looked up, “Barbie, do you have the line the probes are being taken out?”

“I do.”

“Give me the coordinates in the path of whatever is doing it. Do not pick a location close to the Legends’ Planet.” Chris saw the numbers appear on his panel and he turned the steering wheel and pressed the right pedal. He saw Allison buckle in and activate her armor. He pressed a button on his chair and his armor immediately surrounded him. The Barrier Pod skipped across the giant galaxy in an instant and came to a stop at the coordinates on his panel. “Estimate on how far out it is?”

Allison looked at her panel, “It will be here in less than ten seconds. Chris keep your foot on the pedal and be ready to get out here!”

Chris stared at the void monitor as he said, “Why?”

“This may be more Legends.”

Chris’s eyes widened and he started to run but it was too late. They stared at the void monitor and saw a ship coming at them that was beyond their worst nightmares. It flew past them in an instant and Chris held his breath. He waited for it to turn and come back toward them but it continued toward the Legends’ Planet. Allison was shaking and she looked at him, “Why didn’t you run!?”

“It was on us before I could. I was too stunned to react.”

Allison blew out quick breaths and fought to gather control of her breathing.

“I guess that answers one question.”

Chris exhaled, “What is that Barbie?”

“They can’t see us in the barrier.”

Allison shook her head, “That’s a helluva way to find out!”

Chris thought for a long moment and looked up, “Barbie, disable the telepathic broadcast portion of you module.”

“Done.”

Allison shook her head, “Chris, what are you thinking about?”

“Allison, they didn’t detect us.”

“They might have been traveling too fast.”

“I’m shutting down all non-essential systems and I’m going to move toward the Legends’ Planet until we can optically see what’s going on.”

“Chris, this is crazy!”

“Loree.”

“Yes!”

“I’m sending you what we recorded. Get it out to fleet and I’ll contact you later.”

“What are you doing, Chris?”

“That thing that destroyed our probes is a Black Ship that’s nearly the size of a small moon. It blew past us and did not see us in the barrier. I’m going to move until I can see it on my most powerful passive scanner. If it moves toward us, I’m going to run.”

“You shouldn’t be the one doing this!”

“I have the only ship in the fleet that can! We have to find out what’s going on!”

Chris shut down the communicator before Loree could respond. Allison began shutting down most of the systems on her panel, “I have the passive scanner searching ahead of us.”

“I’m going to give us a push and coast toward them.” Chris tapped the right pedal and watched the normal space monitor. The star the Legends’ Planet circled was a small light in the distance but it grew larger. Soon they passed the outer planets and the Legends’ Planet appeared on the monitor. He softly tapped the left pedal and the ship slowly came to a stop. Chris saw Allison was shaking almost uncontrollably. He said, “I’m not going to use my telepathy. Barbie, record that ship and anything it does along with any thoughts you hear. Allison, start the passive scanner recording.”

Allison nodded, pressed a button on her panel, and then pressed another. Chris looked at the central monitor and then both of them heard a loud thought flood their minds, “YOU DISGUST ME.”

“LORD, TEACH US WHAT TO DO.”

“I’VE DESTROYED MORE THAN A THOUSAND PROBES ON MY WAY TO YOUR PLANET. WHY HAVE YOU NOT REMOVED THEM!?”

“LORD, WE DEPEND ON OUR TOOLS TO PERFORM THAT FUNCTION.”

“THEN YOU NEED TO SELECT A BETTER TOOL!”

“THEY’RE THE BEST WE HAVE TO WORK WITH.”

“SEND OUT YOUR SHIPS IMMEDIATELY AND REMOVE ALL OF THEM.” Chris shook his head as hundreds of thousands of Black Ships orbiting the planet ignited their thrusters and blasted away. “WHO PUT THOSE PROBES HERE?”

“LORD, WE DON’T KNOW. WE WERE UNAWARE OF THEM.”

Chris didn’t want to do it but he activated his communicator, “LOREE, RUN!” He shut off the communicator and breathed a sigh of relief. His transmission wasn’t detected. Allison looked at him and shook her head. He nodded and mouthed, “No more.” Allison nodded again and turned back to the monitor as she fought her to control her shaking hands.

“IT APPEARS THERE IS A BETTER TOOL THAN THE ONE YOU’VE CHOSEN. FIND THEM AND FORCE THEM TO YOUR WILL.”

“YES LORD.”

“YOU CAN START BY COLLECTING ONE OF THOSE PROBES AND DETERMINE WHERE IT IS SENDING ITS SIGNALS.”