Trapped in Time-Extinction (39 page)

Both pilots dodged left and right and the two beams flashed through the formation and missed both of them. Allie heard the gunner curse in her mind as he attempted to retarget the ship, “He’s lining up again….ready….NOW!” A moment later Allie heard, “NOW!” She jerked the ship upward to avoid the ship to her right dodging into her. The beam targeted at her flashed by under her Flyer. She was on top of the giant dreadnaught and Gunney said, “Blades extended, cut ’em hard, Allie!”

Allie few her ship directly above the blaster that had fired at the ship on her right twice and saw the brilliant beam under her ship flash through the Dreadnaught’s force field and cut the Dreadnaught in two pieces. One of the pieces was cut in half by another Flyer and she lined up the next Dreadnaught in her path.

• • •

The fifteen thousand Fliers flashed in on the next line of Dreadnaughts in two long lines of white ships. The two lines were staggered such that they overlapped each other’s gaps. The Fliers would look at the thoughts of the Drogon manning their blasters on the Dreadnaughts looking for the one that was targeting their ship. When it fired they would move just as they pressed the firing mechanism. The lines appeared to be weaving wildly out of control but there was an order to the madness. The lines reached the line of Dreadnaughts and every Flier extended a brilliant blue beam from its hull.

As it flashed by a dreadnaught, that beam would cut through the force fields and then cut through the Dreadnaught’s hull. The ancient cutter that was used by Humans on Earth was the weapon that would spell the defeat of the Drogon Empire. The Fliers flashed over and under the Drogon Warships leaving them cut in pieces behind. The Allies’ Warships fell in behind the fast moving Flyers and blasted the pieces of the Drogon Dreadnaughts with nuclear missiles or lasers. The Drogon fought courageously but they couldn’t hit the white ships with their blasters. Every blaster crew on the giant dreadnaughts had a human listening to the gunner’s thoughts and telling the ship that was being fired on when to dodge. That telepathic link is what made the difference. Mark’s Fleet flashed through the thirty thousand behemoths and jumped ahead to the next gathering of Dreadnaughts.

It took more than five years before the last Drogon Warship was destroyed. Then the Dominion Fleets turned and fired their Red Beams and thought waves on the Drogon planets, which did not have force fields to protect them. Not one Drogon planet asked for mercy and none of them received it. The Drogon planets took billions of warships ten years to eradicate; but at the end, the Drogon could do nothing to prevent the Dominion from its victory. Like the Dinosaurs on Earth, the Drogon encountered an unstoppable force that led to their extinction.

But the price was high. The number of Dominion ships killed in the war was too high to count. But the shared fight by the members of the Dominion solidified the planets like nothing else could. The Dominion that emerged was unified and strengthened where it was prepared for whatever the universe hurled at it. Expansion started again and the Dominion continued to grow.

• • •

Twenty million years later, a Scout Telepath walked into the Throne Room and faced the Regent and Andy. She bowed to them and Andy said, “Please rise. Why have you requested this meeting?”

“There is an order that every Scout is required to learn before being allowed to search the universe for possible enemies. That order is quite clear about what to do when confronted with the situation covered by the order and the scout that finds it is ordered to report directly to you without disclosing the reason why.”

Andy and the Regent looked at each other and then turned to the Scout, “Are you referring to Order Number One Red Prime?”

“I am.”

Andy’s eyes went wide, “Do you think you’ve found them?”

“I’ve found a civilization that is building ships that look very much like the one shown in Rule One.”

The Regent said, “Show me!”

The Scout focused on the ceiling and closed her eyes. A planet appeared in her mind and there were hundreds of circular grey ships in orbit above the planet. Andy’s excitement grew and he said, “What is this planet’s coordinates?”

The Scout gave them to the two Leaders and she was dismissed with a directive to be silent about what she discovered. Orders were immediately sent to every Dominion ship to stay away from a galaxy cluster directly in the path of the Dominion’s most recent expansion. The Dominion turned and continued the expansion away from that distant cluster. This was the second cluster of Galaxies that was forbidden for any Dominion ships to enter. High Tech Stealth Probes were launched and the worlds of the Dominion were not told of the discovery. The probes arrived and settled in. The Regent and Andy wrote a message that was to be opened by every Leader that came after them as soon as they accepted the crown. The secret was kept until the time came to reveal it.

• • •

The Director of Scanner Operations entered the Throne Room and bowed. The Regent nodded and he said, “The attack has begun.”

“Are you certain?”

“I am. The success of the invasion is clear and the planet is being bombarded as we speak.”

The Regent pressed a button on his Panel and Andy appeared on the wall monitor. “My friend, the attack has started.” Andy stared at the Regent and lowered his head. The Regent sighed, “I know you want to stop it, but it must go forward.”

“When will the reprisal be sent?”

“The twenty ships have completed their training and we will determine where it will take place once hostages are taken. We are going to allow a six month window before we initiate it.”

“Are you sure about the loyalty of those ten ships?”

“They are all our relatives and they know the importance.”

Andy nodded and looked at the Director, “Son, it’s good to see you.”

“I’ve missed you, Father.”

“I should be back soon. The rebellion is over and now I need to clear up some misunderstandings. Tell my brother where our attack will take place.”

The Director looked at the Regent and nodded. He bowed and left the room. The Regent looked at the wall monitor, “I’m sure the Rebels would love to know what’s going on.”

“But they won’t. I suspect some of the more radical leaders will attempt an assassination and I’m considering allowing them to be successful.”

“I know we’ve discussed this but I still don’t agree with your plan.”

“I know. But I’m ready for it. I miss my mate and life isn’t as joyful without her. My son will make them pay for their actions and they will lose support in the Dominion. This is a critical time and we must do the things needed to maintain peace and unity.”

“Good luck, Brother. I hope it doesn’t come to losing you.” Andy nodded and the monitor went dark.

A week later, the Rebels successfully pulled off an assassination and Andy died at the hands of a Rebel sniper. The planets in rebellion only had four days to celebrate his death before the entire Dominion Fleet arrived and blasted the eight thousand Rebel planets into ashes. The rage of the Dominion at Andy’s death spread like wildfire and on millions of planets, those politicians calling for independence were silenced, usually with a blaster. Every planet witnessed the destruction of the Rebel Planets and no one wanted it to happen to them. Andy gave his life to end the rebellion and centuries later, when the truth finally became known, he joined the Roll of the Dominion Heroes.

T
he large grey colored starship moved away from the cliffs where the caves they had built were located. It flew north for five hundred miles and began scanning for evidence of intelligent life. Burning rocks falling through the atmosphere continuously pelted the ship’s force field but the numbers were lower than seven months earlier. The ship had made it around the gulf to the site of the Destroyer City, when a hundred yard long piece of burning rock narrowly missed hitting them. The Commander immediately yelled, “There’s no way we can scan what’s going on with all these burning rocks. Jump us two years in the future and let’s take a look when conditions are better.” The ship accelerated and cleared the atmosphere. It moved into space and the scout ship entered the landing bay. The ship started glowing and a moment later, disappeared.

It arrived above the planet and the scout left the landing bay. If anything happened, it was ordered to jump back two years and tell them not to make the jump. The scout waited above the planet and the giant grey starship entered orbit. It started its scans at the cliffs and used the most powerful scanner to probe deep into the ground. They spent hours scanning where the three landers were demolished and eventually came to the conclusion that it had to be the remains of the Talen ship. It spent the next ten days scanning for evidence of humans and came up empty handed. The giant creatures that covered the planet were slowly dying out and not many were left. The Commander looked at the Second Scientist, “It appears you were right. That one you chose to send back did not cause our plan to fail.”

“I’m almost sorry he didn’t.”

“You’re close to talking treason.”

“I know it had to happen. If he didn’t do it, someone else would have eventually. He was a very intelligent being and I hate he had to die.” The Scientist said, “I would recommend jumping a thousand years into the future to really make sure none of them survived. There is a possibility they are hiding from our scans.”

“Do you honestly think that could happen?”

“We gave them the blocking invisible suits. I doubt they survived but it won’t hurt to make sure.” The Commander looked at the pilot and nodded. The ship left the planet and picked up the scout. Ten time-jumps later, the Commander looked around at the crew, “That’s enough. The only way to make certain is to jump back to our time and see. If things haven’t changed, we’ll immediately jump and try again. Does everyone agree?” No one spoke. The Commander looked at the Pilot, “Jump us to our home world.”

The grey circular shaped starship began glowing and disappeared from above Earth and a moment later appeared two hundred thousand miles out from their home world. “Start the scans.”

Suddenly, the giant ship was hit by a brilliant yellow beam. The Pilot yelled, “THERE’S A GIANT VESSEL DIRECTLY ABOVE US!!!”

“GET US OUT OF HERE!”

The Pilot hit his emergency jump button and nothing happened. He looked from the left side of his panel to the right as he pushed the jump button continuously. They he looked up and fell back in his chair, “Commander, it appears that beam they fired on us depleted all the nuclear fuel in our reactors. The fuel is now inert.”

The Commander looked at the wall monitor and saw the ship was operating on backup power. The backup generators only had enough power to keep life support and communications functioning. The monitor showed a giant vessel hanging in space directly above his ship and he saw it was pulling his ship into a cavernous landing bay with a tractor beam. He sat on the command stump and looked at the Second Scientist, “Perhaps I was hasty in saying that being didn’t have an impact on our plan.”

“I’m not so sure you were wrong. That ship doesn’t look like anything the Talen had. I’ve mentioned that changing our future may have even more adverse effects that just leaving it alone.”

“Well whoever it is, they knew we were coming.”

The Time Takers looked at the Pilot and the Commander said, “How do you know?”

“That ship doesn’t have any weapons on its hull and its landing bay is a perfect size for our ship. It fired a beam that killed our reactors and now we’re being pulled into it. Whoever it is, they built that ship with the single purpose of capturing us.”

“Your Pilot is very smart. That’s exactly what we planned.”

The Time Takers looked around and the Second Scientist said, “They’re speaking to us telepathically.”

“Right again.”

“Who are you?”

“I’ll answer all your questions as soon as we have you on board. Please open your bay doors so I can enter.”

The Commander stood up, “Why would I do that?”

“You need to understand that damaging your ship is the last thing I will do. However, I won’t hesitate to kill all of you with a red blaster beam if you don’t follow my directives. You should understand that your world is safe and at peace. If that was what you wanted to accomplish with your journey back in time, you were successful.”

“How do I know you’re being truthful?”

“You don’t. However, your scanner still functions. Before we pull you on board, take a look at your planet.”

The Commander looked at the Pilot and nodded. The huge wall monitor illuminated and the ten members of the crew gasped. Their world was covered with huge metropolitan areas and the space above the planet was filled with tens of thousands of starships. The view disappeared as their ship was pulled into the landing bay. The Second Scientist looked at the Commander, “Open the bay door.” The Commander started to protest but the Pilot had already pushed the button.

He glared at the pilot and he said, “You are no long in authority.”

“THAT’S TREASON!”

“No it’s not. Our ship is no longer operational and it was our government that sent us on our mission. It’s clear to me that they know about this ship and it is our duty to follow their will.”

“I AM IN COMMAND!”

The First Scientist looked at the Commander, “No you’re not. Now sit down and shut up!”

The Commander looked at the nine other Time Takers and saw they no longer supported him. He moved toward the Command Stump but was blocked by the Pilot, “You will sit elsewhere.” The Commander glared at him and the Second Scientist said, “We don’t trust you being in control of the intruder defenses.” He looked at the Pilot, “Will you please disarm them.” The pilot nodded and entered a code in the Command Stump’s panel.

The ten waited on the bridge and after ten minutes two beings walked through the portal. The Second Scientist started shaking his head. The human looked at him and smiled, “He didn’t die before he gave us a plan on how to survive your treachery.”

“But none of you were there after the comet hit!”