Pray for the Prey (12 page)

George said, “Notify the other ship.”

Arvolo pushed a button on the communication panel and said, “Cyanna, send the go signal.”

• • •

Gretchen and Aman sat in their command chairs looking down at Earth through the view port and felt their grief. The thick layer of clouds still obscured most of the planet and the close ups they saw on their displays when land was occasionally seen were grotesque. Everything was burned in atomic fire and even the birds had died from the lethal radiation. Aman reached over and held her hand and she squeezed his. Aman’s panel chimed and he looked at his screen, “It’s show time.”

Gretchen said, “I’m taking us out to the probe.”

“How are you going to take us in?”

“I’m coming in from above the planet.”

Aman nodded, “I think that’s a good idea. Their fleet looks like most of it is concentrated in the southern hemisphere over their major space port.”

“That’s where we’ll try to break through.”

“Are you serious?”

“After our little visit to the probe, what do you think they’ll do?”

Aman smiled, “I suspect they’ll send out invitations to attend our little soiree.”

“The more the better.”

“I wish you hadn’t said that.”

Gretchen smiled and turned Earth’s Fury toward the Violet Probe.

• • •

The Scanner Controller looked around his multiple panels and saw the small White Ship power up its force field. He sent the feed to the Fleet Controller and said, “That ship is preparing to move.”

The Fleet Controller appeared on his panel and they watched the ship turn and move away from the destroyed planet, “Where is it going?”

The Scanner said, “It is getting bigger so it must be moving toward our probe.”

“Do you think they can see it?”

They both watched the small ship getting larger on their screen as it accelerated toward the probe until it arrived a hundred yards away and stopped. “It appears they can, Fleet Controller. What is it doing?”

The Fleet Controller said, “What if the roles were reversed and you came back to your home and found it destroyed and you were the only survivor. What would you do?”

The Scanner thought about it and said, “I don’t know. That ship has remained in orbit for more than two measures.”

“And what do you think the creatures on that ship have been feeling as they look down on their world?”

“I would be getting angry. But why would they come to our probe?” The Fleet Controller remained silent and then the Scanner said, “They’re telling us that they’re coming here to make us pay.”

“Order the Defense Fleets to action status. They’re telling us they’re coming and daring us to stop them. Do you still wonder if those ships killed our Fleet?”

“It appears the beings on that small ship aren’t worried about us.”

“Call in two more Squadrons. Do it now!”

The Scanner started issuing instructions as he saw the small white ship disappear.

The Fleet Controller ran to the bridge of his ship and yelled for the Scanner Controller to bring in a view of the area around the Home Hive. He sat down and watched his display until he heard the alarms go off, as the small White Ship appeared directly above the Home Hive about ten units out. He ordered the ships on that side of the Hive to jump between the incoming White Ship and the planet.

The White Ship accelerated and he was stunned at the approach speed. He ordered more ships to take station above the planet between the defense lines and the Hive. He sent an attack warning to the Hive Controller and continued to watch his display. The Hive Controller appeared on his panel, “What are you doing?”

“It appears a single small ship survived our attack on that planet we destroyed. It has been orbiting the planet for two measures but had just moved directly to our probe and stopped. Its force field was powered and then it jumped. I believe it is coming here to attempt to take retribution on our world.”

“Why the massive call up? It’s just one small ship.”

“That we know nothing about, Hive Controller. I’d rather overreact than make a mistake.”

The Hive Controller looked back at his panel showing the small white ship and snorted, “Let me know when it’s been destroyed.”

The Fleet Controller looked at the dark display and decided that he was glad he was on a ship and not on the planet. That small ship had deliberately communicated its intentions and that more than anything else made him worry. It could have just jumped away and attacked without warning but it had chosen to challenge them. Something just didn’t seem right.

• • •

Aman saw thousands of ships jumping in front of their ship and said, “Pulses are being launched.”

“I see them.”

“More ships are arriving to the side of our approach and are launching pulses.”

“How many are following us?”

“About twenty thousand at the moment, but the number is growing rather rapidly. We’ll be running into a veritable wall of them in less than twenty seconds.”

Gretchen grimly smiled and said, “Were you ever into rock climbing?”

“No, I’m afraid of heights.”

Gretchen did a double take without taking her eyes of the scanner, “You have got to be kidding me!”

“Nope; flying around space is not the same thing as looking down from a high place.”

“Well, you’re about to get your first lesson. Keep your hands on the weapons board. We might have to use it.”

Earth’s Fury approached the wall of energy pulses and Gretchen went to three quarter speed. She turned the ship vertically and flew over the top of the incoming pulses before they could change direction. She flew over the line of Violet Ships that had launched the barrage was by them before they could respond. The small ship left the pursuing energy pulsed behind.

“What are those pulses doing that we passed?”

“They’ve turned and are now pursuing us.” Aman looked at his board, “They are losing ground on us.” Aman looked up from his panel and said, “More ships are jumping in.”

“Where are they coming from?”

“It’s like you suspected. They’re being moved from above the space port.” Aman paused, “Why are you so intent on hitting the space port?”

“That’s where they’re building their new ships. The view taken by the Jukebox shows thousands of them on the ground. I want hit them where it hurts. It also appears the port is their largest city as well.”

“The next line is firing more energy pulses at us and they have now added three more lines above and below their original ships. I suspect rock climbing just got a tad more difficult.”

“Did you ever go caving, Aman?”

“Nope, I’m claustrophobic as well.”

“Get out of here! How did you ever make it into the service?”

“Must be my charming personality and outstanding good looks. How do you intend to make it through that barrage moving at us?”

“I’m going to use a striker.”

“That will only leave us three to hit the planet.”

“Actually it will leave us four.”

Aman looked at Gretchen with a furrowed brow and then realized what she was saying. He smiled and said, “You’re right. I miscounted.” Gretchen slowed the ship slightly to allow the eighty thousand energy pulses chasing them to move closer. She matched their speed and launched a heavy striker at the middle of the incoming mass of energy pulses. Aman said, “I hope they’re right about the force field.”

“We have to give it a moment to hit and expand before we hit it. If we arrive too early it’s all over.” Gretchen increased speed and followed the striker. She dimmed their panels as the striker hit.

The Fleet Controller watched the small ship go over the first wave of energy pulses and ordered more ships to confront the speeding white ship. It was faster than any ship in his fleet and it changed direction as if it had no mass. That scared him and he watched as four lines of ships launched a massive cone of energy pulses. That ship was already inside the upper and lower walls of the cone, so it wouldn’t be able to go over or below it. This should end this threat. Then his display turned white from a gigantic blast.

• • •

The energy pulse the striker hit exploded in a ball twenty times larger than it would normally make and started a chain reaction of explosions in the energy pulses, forming the giant cone. The blast built on itself as the pulses chasing the small ship ran into the growing explosion and sent a massive shock wave out.

The explosion was big enough to eventually be seen a hundred light years away and most planets that saw it thought a star had gone nova. The small white ship punched through the place where the striker hit and raced away faster than the shock wave behind it. The white ship blew by the four lines of ships which activated their drives to jump in front of it again, but before they could move, the shock wave hit their lines and blew them away like leaves in a hurricane. The ships weren’t damaged inside their force fields, but the entire line was rocked end-to-end as the shock wave passed.

The Scanner Controller watched the massive explosion and saw that the four lines were not going to be able to jump in front of the ship and ordered every ship in the fleet to move in front of the intruder. He no longer doubted that the small ship was fully capable of destroying his ships. If just one could do this much he knew that more than a thousand would be devastating. He ordered the four lines to replace the ships he had moved from the southern side of the planet, but then he saw his worst nightmare take place. Before they could jump, the White Ship jumped to the southern side of the planet and accelerated at a speed that was impossible. It would arrive in less than sixty micro-measures and he immediately ordered the ships back to defend the Hive City.

The Fleet Controller watched the White Ship jump to the southern side of the planet and knew that it was going to be a very close thing to cut it off before it arrived. He stood and stared at the display, unable to take his eyes off what was happening. Just before the White Ship arrived, the huge fleet appeared in front of them. He sat back down and took a deep breath.

• • •

“Gretchen, they’ve managed to get the fleet back to the space port.”

“I see them.”

Aman watched as the fleet grew larger in his display and saw thousands of energy pulses moving toward them. “You’ve got to clear the way.”

Gretchen took her eyes off her panel for a moment and looked at Aman, “Thank you for helping me do this. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We knew the risk and now we need to do what must be done.”

Gretchen turned back to her panel as Aman launched the three remaining strikers with eight second separation between them. Gretchen watched the first one hit and blow away the energy pulses. She followed the two remaining strikers through the blast and saw the lines of Violet Ships approaching. The strikers hit the middle line and blew a massive section into a huge explosion and then expanded up the open ends of the line’s force fields blowing every ship into dust. As the blast expanded, Gretchen raised the force field to maximum and went to full speed and blew through the last line of ships. Her last act was to return the ships mass back to normal and the hundred ton ship hit the Home Hive at ninety percent light speed. The two million energy pulses that were stored at the main ship building facility added to the ensuing explosion, but were hard to distinguish from the total blast. One third of the planet blew away as the rest of it melted from the core that covered everything that remained.

The Fleet Controller didn’t stand back up as he watched his planet blown apart. He was speechless and all the ships in the fleet that survived the blast which destroyed three of the lines above the site of the explosion were shocked beyond measure. The Hive had been hurt in ways that would soon be felt, but no one thought about that. That one ship had defeated everything they did to stop it and now their civilization saw what they had visited on so many others and they were stunned into immobility.

The Fleet Controller watched and knew that the Hive Controller and all of the chosen successors died with the planet. There was no structure to choose another and he knew there was a leadership void that could lead to their destruction, if something wasn’t done. He looked at his Drive Controller and said, “Take us to our defensive lines. We must make sure the horde doesn’t exploit this.” The ship jumped away and soon, the other surviving ships joined him at the defensive line to fight off a new attack by the Yellow Ships. There was no longer a need to make sure if the small ships were the ones that destroyed their fleet. Now there was no doubt. The detection system that was used to see outside their galaxy was destroyed in the blast. For the foreseeable future, the Violet Civilization was blind to ships that came from open space.

• • •

Arvolo watched the feed being sent from Earth’s Fury and took a deep breath when the display went to static. He knew that Aman and Gretchen would probably be forced to use their ship to hit the planet and he hated himself for sending them to die. George looked over at him and knew what was going to happen. “We have been given time to build, RV. Those two wouldn’t have wanted this any other way.” George looked at the planet and said, “Do you have the present?”

“We do.”

“Would you be so kind and deliver it?”

Cyanna spoke into her com.

• • •

RV looked at George and nodded but remained silent. George and the rest of the bridge crew honored his silence and waited for him to act. After ten minutes he looked at Cyanna and said, “Jump the ships.”

Cyanna saw his anguish and wished she could do something to comfort him, but knew that now wasn’t the time. She turned to her board and said, “Jump alert; we’ll be jumping to the Moet planet in three minutes. All hands to battle stations and pilots man your ships. You will be weapons free on arrival.”

Kenny and Bob had also watched the sacrifice of the two brave sailors and they felt a steely resolve to deal with the ones that had caused their death. The Moet were going to learn what their treachery brought home to them in just a few short moments. The three main battleships powered their weapons and the attack craft prepared to do battle with the ones that caused Earth’s destruction. No one had to be told that there would be no prisoners taken in the coming battle.