Nowhere to Run (20 page)

“The Green Ship’s beam is more than a hundred times more powerful.”

“So that means they could destroy our ships with one hit.”

“That’s the bad news.”

“Is there any good news in this?”

Doc smiled, “We could also destroy their ships with one hit and they don’t move at light speed.”

Ian shook his head, “He who fires first fires last.”

Doc tilted his head, “We just have to hope they stay out of this.”

“I don’t imagine there are any ships there that could force them to get into the fray.”

“We can only hope.”

• • •

The Fleet Leader looked at his display and didn’t like what he was seeing. The chosen Directors of the Invasion Forces were arguing about what to do about the attack on their fleets. It was looking like things were not going to go well for the surviving ships.

“Where did those ships come from that attacked us?”

“They had to come from the galaxy we were going to invade.”

“Do you have any proof of that?”

“You’re stupid. They didn’t come from this galaxy and there’s no other galaxy near us that was threatened by us. That had to be a preemptive strike to prevent us from our plans to invade.”

“I’d advise you to watch your words, Director. Before we do anything else, we need to verify that they came from that galaxy.”

“And just how do you think we’re going to do that?”

“We’ll send the ships that survived to go and scout that galaxy and see what we’re facing.”

“Are you out of your mind? Sending those ships out without enough numbers to take on whoever is in that galaxy is asking for more ship losses.”

“They’ll just be running and scanning. We’ll send more ships once we determine if that is where those ships originated. We must confirm that before we can take the next step.”

The Directors argued for another two hours but in the end the decision was made to send the survivors to scout the close spiral galaxy. The Fleet Leader shook his head at the callous disregard for the crew’s lives.

• • •

“Ian, one of our advanced scanners just intercepted a transmission in Andromeda.”

“What did it hear, Moe?”

“The Invaders are going to send all of their surviving ships to our galaxy to confirm that the attackers of their fleet are here. Once that determination is made, they’re going to call for more ships from M87 to resolve the problem.”

“Are those ships still located in one place?”

“At the moment but they are sending assignments at this moment.”

“Moe, does the scanner have each ship’s location?”

“It does.”

“Start sending them to our Battle Groups. Notify Doc to get his fleet powered up and to be ready to jump at those targets. How long will it take you to send the assignments?”

“The Hub Computer and I have been tracking their movements. We can send them out in less than ten minutes.”

Ian punched his console, “Attention all ships. You will be receiving a coordinate momentarily that corresponds to one of the surviving ships from our attack. We will not form up but will jump from wherever you’re located to that coordinate and attack that ship. Some of you will have two ships assigned to one of their ships but you must make sure you take out your assigned target. We’ll be jumping in fifteen minutes. Go to Battle Stations and don’t miss your target.”

Doc appeared on his display, “What’s going on?”

“The Invaders are planning to send the ships that survived our first attack to scout our galaxy. We’ve got to prevent that from happening. Moe and the Hub are sending the coordinates of all their ships and we’re all jumping in together to remove as many as possible.”

Doc nodded and disappeared from the screen. Ian looked at Violet, “We have our assignment. E, are you ready?”

“I have the location locked in and the view from the scanner shows many support vessels around their ships on loading supplies. Most of them do not have their force fields up.”

“That’s some good news.” Ian watched his display and saw the red light in the upper corner turn green. All ships had received their assignments. “We will be jumping in fifteen seconds from my mark. Ready…Mark!”

The two million Green Ships watched the countdown; when it hit zero, they all disappeared.

• • •

The Fleet Leader’s anger was approaching rage and he decided to take his anger to the Directors. He ordered his ship to jump to the planet where they were located and that decision was the only thing that saved his life. His ship disappeared ten seconds before two Green ships emerged into normal space looking for his ship.

“Where is it?”

“I don’t know. The scanner had it here a few moments ago.” The pilot replayed the scanner’s information and he said, “For some reason, it jumped away a few seconds ago.”

“Well, we missed an opportunity. Get out of here.”

The two ships turned and accelerated away at twice the speed of light.

• • •

Dom watched his display and saw his target directly ahead. He was linked with D and he turned the ship slightly and bore in on the Invader Ship at a high velocity. Becky watched the approach in her face plate and activated the forward Boson Blaster. She and B were one mind and she was able to see the individual plates on the hull of their target. She looked at the bridge of the ship and turned her eyes directly toward it. The blaster barrel deflected slightly and she smiled as she mentally fired the intense beam at the Invader Ship as it grew in her vision. The bright beam hit just behind the bridge and D accelerated away at light speed as the Invader Ship exploded in a nuclear blast, taking out more than ten support vessels surrounding it.

• • •

The Fleet Leader arrived at the Director’s location and received word that all of the ships in his fleets had been destroyed in a surprise attack. He entered the government building and approached the conference room where the Directors were just learning about the attack. His rage was growing by the second. Two guards held up their arms and one said, “No one may enter but the Directors.” The Fleet Leader pulled a blaster and shot both guards in the head. Their bodies collapsed to the floor and he walked into the chamber, closed, and locked the door behind him. The Directors stopped yelling as they saw the officer walk into the room. He arrived at the front and said, “How do you think those ships were able to attack us just when we were organizing to invade their galaxy?” No one spoke; they all saw the blaster in his hand. “Did it ever dawn on you idiots that they had to have been watching us to be able to do it? Now you just transmitted orders on an open frequency for us to go and scout that galaxy. Did it ever cross your mind that not only is that enemy watching us but is also intercepting our communications?”

No one in the room said anything. The Fleet Leader sneered at the thirty Directors and said, “Now as a result of your stupidity, all of our ships have been destroyed along with all of their crews.” He paused and stared at the Directors. He looked up at the display hanging from the ceiling and saw numerous faces on it. He smiled and said, “You are going to have to find others that aren’t so dumb.” He turned and burned every Director in the room. The representatives on the display watched in shock as the officer methodically shot every one of them. He killed six that finally saw there was no escape and charged him together. He then walked toward the back of the room and shot two more trying to crawl out in the rows of chairs. He killed the last one hiding behind the podium at the front of the room. One of the faces on the display screamed for him to stop. At the end, even the faces on the display were silent. The officer looked up at the display and the rage on his face was clear. He pointed the blaster at the huge screen and burned it with a blaster shot. The door blew in and the officer turned the blaster on himself and fired it into his chest. The crew of the officer’s ship were rounded up and summarily executed. Of the fifty million crewmen that came in the Invader’s Ships, the last one died an hour after the officer. Not one survived.

• • •

The Grey Ship waited at the border. It knew it was being watched and wondered why there had not been a response. The Navigator looked at the Commander, “How long are we going to wait?”

“As long as it takes.”

The Navigator turned back to his console and knew that there had been occasions where they had never come. Suddenly, a large Green Ship appeared on his display. “They’re here.”

“Open the channel.” The commander watched his chair arm and said, “I assume you saw what happened.”

“We did.”

“Are you going to take action?”

“I’m curious, why are you asking?”

“The data sent back shows that our ships are at risk to that new enemy’s blasters.”

“Why should that concern us?”

“We have been enemies for thousands of years. My leaders have recently asked why that situation exists and no one can answer why. Whatever put us at odds is no longer known. We were wondering if you knew what happened that caused our mutual animosity.”

There was a long moment of silence. “I will see if I can find an answer to your question.”

The Grey Ship Commander leaned back in his chair. He looked at the Navigator and said, “Go and get us something to eat. This may take a while.”

• • •

Four days later the Commander heard, “My leaders have searched for the answer to your question and have determined that the original reason is not recorded.”

“So that means we are enemies and we don’t know why.”

There was a pause and then, “It appears that is the case.”

“My leaders sent me here to determine why we are fighting each other and to ask the question, if a reason was not found, why would we continue this?”

“It is the way it’s always been.”

“Does that mean we don’t control our actions but are slaves to history?”

“What are you suggesting?”

“For the first time in our history there is a civilization out there that can take on our ships and possibly win. We are much more bothered by that issue than our current stalemate with you. It just seems logical that perhaps we would be stronger if we worked together for our mutual safety instead of just standing by and allowing the other to be defeated.”

“You’re making an assumption that we could be defeated.”

“I’m sure you’ve analyzed that beam and see that it could make it through your force fields. Are you so certain of success?”

“Are you suggesting we should join the invasion?”

“No, not really; those ships are only defending themselves. I can’t blame them for that. However, these aggressive idiots may force that civilization to come here. That is what has us worried.”

There was an hour of silence and then the Green Ship said, “My leaders agree that this is something worth discussing. How would your leaders like to make this happen?”

“Your ships are more powerful than ours…”

“Only slightly.”

“Yes, but we came here asking you to help us. We are willing to send our representatives to you. We will bring them here and send them to one of your ships in an unarmed shuttle. We also think this is worth doing.”

There was a pause and the Commander heard, “Have them here in eighty padgas.”

“We’ll see you then.” The Commander watched the Green Ship disappear and wondered what the fallout from all of this was going to be. It should prove interesting.

T
he Leaders of the new Alliance were gathered in the High Council’s Chamber. The High Councilors were in the upstairs gallery watching the proceedings and had been told to remain silent during the conference. The King had chosen Ian to represent the Union and he had brought Violet, Doc, and Dee to assist him. Cole represented the Union’s scientists and engineers and Argel sat next to him as one of his assistants. The First noticed her and wondered why she wasn’t with the Kilper’s delegation. That would be looked in to after this was over. He looked at the Union Representatives and was once again amazed at how similar they were to his species. He looked around the room and stood. The room grew silent and he said, “We’re here to determine our next course of action. I am going to ask my main computer to tell us where we are and what it expects to happen next. We’ll start our discussions after it provides us with that information.”

“This information has been gathered from what I know as well as the Union Obelisk’s information. Both of us agree that the Invaders will not attack again from Andromeda. When they come again they will attack like they did when they invaded Andromeda; they will be coming directly here. We are also of the opinion that they will be coming with a massive number of ships and will not be scouting our galaxy before their arrival. Their ability to scan the jumping medium will be used to direct them to our civilizations.”

There was silence and the First said, “Do you have an idea as to which civilization will be discovered first?”

“The Kilper Common has been using jump drives thousands of years longer than the Union so evidence suggests that we would be found first. However, we only have a fifty nine percent probability of that.”

“Why?”

“Because the Union is slightly closer to a direct line to their galaxy.”

The First thought a moment, “Where are we in building defenses around our planets?”

“The vast majority of our planets are not adequately defended but that probably won’t be a problem, unless we lose the initial contact with their forces.”

“Tell me why?”

“We have moved our populations off the former main planets but have left all of the reactors and electrical systems running. Those fifty thousand worlds give off a tremendous signal. They are also where the most jumps have been made in our civilization. We have had all of our warships jumping between them after the last battle so the jump signatures around them should be enormous. We have been moving populations to the other planets using our new FTL Drives when this danger was detected, so most of the other planets shouldn’t stand out on their scanners. The Obelisk and I both think the former main planets are the most likely place they will attack first.”