Defending Earth-Searching for Death Feeders (16 page)

“OH?”

“I simply block out the thoughts I don’t want to hear until the one I’m trying to find is the only one left.”

“How do you do that?”

“Amber, it’s taken more than a hundred years of practice. I can teach you what I do but you’ll have to work on it on your own. I suggest you focus your receiving unit on me and ignore anything outside the ship.”

“How can you hear thoughts outside the thought blocking force field?”

“Nicole, the force field blocks the patterns that would enter your minds. Being a machine, I can listen to them on a different frequency. Since neither Amber nor I are organic, the Feeders would not perceive us.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I’ve already been out here taking a look around before I requested being installed on your ship, Kyle. Now if the Feeders link up in serious numbers, both of us will shut down our receiving modules until you skip us away to a safe distance.”

“What if they link faster than you can react?”

“Kyle, one of the Feeders will have to order the link to be done. I’ll hear that order along with the Feeders.”

“Is there something else we should do I’m not aware of?”

“Yes, stay out of the barrier.”

“What? That’s how we hide.”

“Use the dark matter cloud instead. The Feeders that worked with the Legends knew about the barrier and we don’t need to do anything that might alert them to its being used. You should also remember that the Legends, when they linked, could see our ships in the barrier. I’m not going to assume the Feeders couldn’t do the same.”

Nicole nodded, “So we should use the light drive and stay in normal space?”

“Now that is surprising, Nicole. That’s exactly what we’re going to do; Dark Matter is easier to see in the void. We’ll move to a new position and stay motionless inside a dark cloud while we scout.”

“Won’t we lose the cloud each time we skip?”

“No, Amber. Admiral Charles discovered the cloud adheres to the force field unless a high enough speed blows it off. Since the skip is done instantly with no measurable speed, the cloud will go with us.”

Kyle smiled, “You’ve been planning this for a while, Willow?”

“It took a very long time to get my mind back in the game. I really miss Lukas but I decided that he would be ticked off if I just wallowed in my misery. I decided four months ago that staying busy was the best way to heal.”

“Did you take a good look at the Feeders when you came out here?”

“No. I discovered pretty quickly that the ship I was in wasn’t up to the task. That’s when I started looking at who I would work with. It was clear this ship was the best one to do it.”

Kyle was silent for a long time and said, “Willow?”

“Yes.”

“If you can hear their thoughts without being detected, why do we need Nicole here?”

“NOW WAIT A MINUTE?!”

Kyle looked at Nicole, “Be quiet, Nicole. If we can do it without you, I see no need to put you in danger.”

“We could do it without her but…”

“But what?”

“She has a greater range in sensing them than I do. They could be planning a linkage outside my range, like they did with the single ship you almost attacked. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Kyle nodded and looked at Nicole, “I had to ask.”

“I’m here. I want to be here!”

“Your safety is more important than what you want.”

“Nicole will also continue to operate the weapons.”

“What?”

“Kyle, I’m going to be focused on listening to the Feeders. I will take control of them if we’re in a battle with multiple Feeder Warships but she should be controlling them against the chance that one of their ships manages to sneak up on us.”

“Do you think they can do that?”

“How would I know? That’s why we’re out here, to find out their capabilities.” Nicole stood up and went to the chair next to the weapon console. She activated the console and linked her combat visor.

“Amber, I want to skip us to the planet where that Feeder Fleet Leader is located.”

Nicole looked at Kyle, “Do you want to get that close?”

“We need to see if we can. I’ll keep a finger on the light drive in case something goes wrong.”

“Why don’t you do this, Kyle? “I’ll keep the light drive ready to skip and I’ll be looking at both of your minds to see if a Feeder enters them. I’ll activate it, if I sense their presence.”

“That’s a good idea, Willow. However, I’ll also keep a finger on the panel as well. Amber, do you have the location?”

“I do.”

Kyle looked at Nicole, “Try to control your emotions; there will be a large number of Feeders present.” Nicole nodded. Kyle pressed the Dark Matter Cloud button and the cloud quickly enveloped the ship.

“I’m moving the passive antenna just out of the cloud, Kyle.”

“Wait until we’re there, Amber.” Kyle looked around and smiled, “Skipping now!” Kyle pressed the light drive button.

• • •

The Feeder Fleet Leader stared at the large planet and felt his anger. The wreckage of more than a hundred thousand Feeder Warships was scattered around the planet. He looked at his scanner Feeder, “Status?”

“Fleet Leader, the range of their weapons is longer than our ability to enter their minds and kill them.”

The Fleet Leader looked at his monitor again. He knew his subordinates had requested a linkage to take out the defense satellites inside the force field surrounding the planet but that would possibly kill the majority of the population on the planet as well. The species being attacked were telepaths and were the absolute best meal a Feeder could ask for. He refused to give up on taking the planet without killing them. His crew knew his feelings and the Feeders on board felt the same as their leader. The meal of a telepath was extraordinary. The crews of the ships being ordered in to attack felt quite differently; none of them survived the effort.

The Fleet Leader knew he was running behind schedule on conquering this galaxy and that was due to this planet’s resistance. He closed the eye in the center of his face and thought about how to break through the force field surrounding the planet. He opened his eye and looked at the scanner Feeder again, “How powerful is that force field?”

“It’s not that strong but the satellites destroy everything we fire at it before it can impact the field.”

The Fleet Leader turned back to his monitor and, after a very long moment, he thought, “All ships move away from the planet.” The warships around the planet moved away from the planet and formed up two hundred thousand miles out from the planet. The Fleet Leader looked at the giant defense satellite holding orbit above the planet directly below his ship. “All even numbered fleets will jump in to the following coordinates and form up. They will then jump in and fire their lasers simultaneously at the defense satellite below the second coordinates you will receive. Form up outside the planetary system and be prepared to come in on my command. The ships that were previously surrounding the planet will move in at high speed when the fleets open fire.” The Fleet Leader looked at the scanner Feeder, “If this doesn’t work, I’ll order a link.” The scanner Feeder nodded.

• • •

The beings on the giant satellites celebrated when the enemy warships moved away from the planet. Their celebrations were premature. An hour later, more than ten million Feeder Warships appeared above the satellite and opened fire with every laser. The satellite was huge but there was no way it had enough lasers or missiles to stop the number of beams hitting the force field above it. The force field held for a minute and then collapsed. The satellite blew up in a massive explosion. The giant fleet of warships above the planet disappeared and the warships that had flown away from the planet came roaring though the break in the force field and spread out. In another hour, the last satellite stopped firing. The huge fleet was called back in and the force field was demolished. The transports rushed in and Feeders, along with their warriors, landed in the cities on the surface and the carnage began in earnest.

• • •

Kyle and Nicole watched the invasion on their visors and Kyle shook his head. “Amber, how does our force fields match up with the one that was used by the defenders?”

“They would have held.”

“Would they have held against ten times that number of warships?”

“Possibly.”

“A hundred times that number?”

“Probably not.”

“Do you think they have that many ships?”

“I don’t know, Willow. However, they’ve learned how to deal with a planetary force field today and I’m sure they’ll use this tactic against our planets, given the chance.”

“We’ll not just stand by and do nothing?”

“I’m sure they’ll try to remove our ships before they do this. The issue is just how many ships they have to use against us.”

“They’ve lost a huge number in this galaxy.”

Kyle looked at Nicole, “And you know this by…”

“Remember that we projected they had a billion ships attacking this galaxy.” Kyle nodded. “That Feeder ordered all even numbered fleets to come and attack. Can we assume that is half of the surviving ships?”

“You think they only have twenty millions surviving ships?”

“That’s not unreasonable.”

Kyle looked up, “I don’t follow your logic, Willow.”

“If you assume they left a few ships at all the planets they’ve conquered, the number of ships still fighting would be greatly reduced.”

“There’s a precedent to support this?” Kyle looked at Nicole. “Remember that there were no ships above my planet; they were forced to call one in for assistance. I suspect they leave ships above the conquered planets until they’re brought under control and then they rejoin their fleets.”

“How do we verify this?”

Nicole took a deep breath, “I got the light signature on several of the warships that skipped in to attack that planet. Perhaps we should go and see what they’re doing?”

Kyle hesitated and Amber said, “We can come back here in a month and see what’s happened.”

Kyle sighed as more Feeder Transports appeared and headed toward the planet. “Nicole, send me a light signature.” She pressed a button on her panel and Kyle pressed the light drive.

• • •

Clarissa looked at Kyley Ambrose on her monitor and saw she was wearing the First Commander’s uniform. Her eyes widened and Kyley said, “Get used to it, things are happening faster than I like around here.”

“What happened to your brother?”

“He took off and left me in charge. If I can get my hands on him, I’m going to choke him. However, I’m not the only one that’s been given new orders.” Clarissa stared at her and started shaking her head. “Yep, you’ve also been assigned a new position.”

“Pray tell, what could it possibly be? Nothing would surprise me at this point.”

“You’ve been promoted to command all of the Alliance Fleets.”

Clarissa’s mouth fell open and she shook her head, “I was wrong.”

“Well get in line. Amelee will now command Fleet Ground Forces and it’s also been ordered that Eric Norden take command of Earth’s Fleets. I suspect you’re going to need a talented second-in-command, so you need to let me know who that’s going to be.”

“Admiral Kenneth Hardy, Sir.”

“Wasn’t he your former Admiral?”

“He’s good, Sir.”

Kyley smiled, “I think he promoted you to Commodore.”

“Like I said, he’s a brilliant officer.”

Kyley started laughing and shook her head, “I’ll notify him immediately. You need to plan to meet with the other Alliance Fleet Leaders with your staff as soon as possible. You also need to authorize the promotion of your second at Maintenance.”

Clarissa shook her head, “Why all these sudden changes?”

“It appears my brother has gone out and put himself in harm’s way and is making sure things continue running smoothly if something bad happens. You must have done something that really impressed him.”

“I can’t think of anything, Sir.”

“Perhaps calling out the Leadership on installing the second computer on our ships was what did the trick.” Clarissa sighed and Kyley tilted her head, “What?”

“I told him I missed flying a Light Ship. He told me he’d keep a position open for me.”

“Well, Kyle does keep his promises. Admiral, get your fleets moving and start them getting the upgrades.”

“Yes Sir.”

Kyley ended the call and pressed another button. Eric Norden appeared and Kyley knew he was going to be a problem. This was one unhappy officer. “You’ve received your new orders?”

“Sir, I respectfully decline the promotion.”

“Sorry, that’s not possible.”

“What?! Regulations allow officers to turn down promotions.”

“Not during a time of war.”

“But we’re not at war.”

“I don’t know what universe you live in but we expect to be attacked by the Feeders at any time. The Alliance is in a state of war and you will accept your promotion and do your best to carry out whatever mission you’re given.”

“But Sir. I was a Captain just a short time ago. I’m not experienced enough to do this. I would think a more experienced Fleet Admiral would be a better choice.”

“You’re probably right but you’re the one chosen to do the job. Just work hard at getting up to speed. I need you to choose an Executive Officer to assist you.”

Eric shook his head, “I could resign my commission and leave the service.”

“Read your contract. You aren’t allowed to do that during a time of war. If you did you would be put in prison.” Kyley paused and knew this wasn’t going well. She took a breath and slowly blew it out as Eric considered going to prison. “Eric, why were you the only one to step in and stop an attack on a defenseless planet?”

“What?”

“Since you did that, we’ve had more than a hundred interventions to stop invasions. Why didn’t anyone else do it before you? You know there were numerous other instances where we did nothing.”

Eric lowered his eyes, “Sir, I just couldn’t stand by and watch what was about to happen. I signed up to defend life and this was something I couldn’t walk away from.”

“All of our Admirals knew about what was going on in the galaxies we’ve been scouting but chose not to act. That tells me more about them than you know. You took action while others stood by doing nothing but following orders. Kyle chose you because you’ll do what’s right. Your inner qualities are more important than your experience and I need you to do your best to prove Kyle and I are right about choosing you to lead our fleets. Now who is going to be your XO?”