Defending Earth-Searching for Death Feeders (17 page)

Eric stared at Kyley and started to slowly nod, “Commodore Kelly Connor, Sir. She was willing to throw away her career to help me stop that attack.”

“I’ll notify her to report to you as soon as she signs her papers. Do you think I’ll have resistance from her?”

“No Sir. She wants to be promoted.”

“Good; get with Admiral Jorgenson and she’ll give you a Sit. Rep. on what’s going on. Good luck and make us proud, Admiral.” Eric nodded and Kyley ended the call. She sat back in her chair and was amazed that Kyle had chosen Eric. How was he able to know who the best were for the jobs? She hoped he was safe. She missed him already.

• • •

Eric put his head in his hands and heard, “Admiral, your office is ready.”

Eric looked up, “Office?”

“You have an office in Fleet Headquarters with communications set up to contact all Fleet Commanders.”

Eric nodded and then smiled, “Contact Kelly and tell her to meet me there as soon as she signs her paperwork.”

“Why don’t I tell her to report to the Fleet Commander and not tell her who it is?”

“That’s a great idea. Do you know what her new rank will be, Leif?”

“Full Admiral.”

“Oh is she going to be shocked! Take us to Fleet.” The Light Ship disappeared and instantly arrived on the roof of Fleet Operations. He stepped off his ship and started down the stairs when he was confronted by an armored warrior, “You are not authorized to land on the roof pad! You will remove your ship immediately!”

Eric stared at the armored warrior and said, “State your name and rank!”

“Captain Joe Daniels. Now move your ship, Sir. Only Admirals are allowed to use the roof pad.”

“Please inquire on my name, Captain; Eric Norden.”

There was a momentary pause and the Warrior came to attention, “I apologize, Sir. I’ve just received notification of your promotion.”

“Captain, you are relieved of your duties.”

“Yes Sir.”

“And you will be reassigned to report directly to me. You will be the head of my security team and I expect you to select the best warriors to be under your command. Is that clear?”

“YES SIR!”

“I will order Fleet to assign you an armed Light Transport to follow me wherever I go. Now go and choose a good team!”

“Sir, I need to be relieved before I leave. I’ll carry out your orders after my relief arrives.”

Eric smiled, “That would be good, Commodore.”

Eric entered his office and Joe shook his head and called for Defense to send a warrior to replace him. He was in the process of choosing the warriors to be on his team when he realized the Admiral had called him Commodore. He stopped and realized he was now in the Navy instead of the Army. The Army didn’t use Commodores in their ranks. He shook his head and continued interviewing warriors. He and they were now Marines detached from the normal chain-of-command.

A week later, Eric notified him that he wanted twenty armed troop transports readied with ten Special Tactics Warriors assigned on each of them. They would remain on standby until they were notified to move out. What was the Admiral planning?”

• • •

“Kyle.”

“Yes, Amber.”

“I’ve received a notification from the Goran High Command that they have a package the High Leader has requested be delivered to you.”

“I thought we ordered no communications during our absence?”

“It appears they have a thought blocker specially developed for Nicole and Hengel ordered it sent to you immediately.”

Kyle looked at his monitor and saw the planet below him being attacked by a hundred and eleven Feeder Warships. He turned around and looked at Nicole and said, “Just how do they intend to deliver it?”

“The Commander has requested we skip to a safe location and send the light signature of a nearby star. They ask that we then send the light signature of our landing bay door.”

“What?”

“I don’t understand the instructions, either but I do have the coordinates of the planet the Feeders destroyed. I suspect there aren’t any of them still there.”

“Take us there and see if you’re right.” The Light Ship disappeared and arrived two thousand miles away from the destroyed planet. Kyle looked up, “Willow, do you sense anything?”

“No, and neither does Nicole.”

“Send them the coordinates of this planet and the light signature of our landing bay door, Amber.”

“Done.”

A moment later, Kyle felt a small bump. “What was that?”

“There is a device adhering to the landing bay door.”

“How did they do that?”

“They must have a probe that operates with a light drive.”

“I’ve not heard anything about that?”

“You wouldn’t with all the new restrictions on communicating secrets openly.”

Kyle smiled, “I forgot about that, Willow.” He looked at Nicole, “Come with me.” Nicole stood up and followed Kyle to the landing bay. Kyle pressed a blue button on the wall next to the landing bay door and a weak force field energized. He pressed a yellow button and the landing bay door swung in halfway and stopped. A small probe was in the center of the door and he saw a green light flashing on it. He pressed the button next to the light and the device came off into his armored hands. He closed the landing bay door and turned off the force field. He looked at the probe and saw a red button glowing in the center and he pressed it. A portal opened on the small probe and he reached in and took out a small box. He opened it and took out a silver colored band.

“What is that?”

“The Gorans have been working on a specially designed thought blocker for your people to use. This is supposed to allow you to see in your mind what the primitive part of your human brain is sensing.”

Nicole pulled her long white hair into a pony tail, “Do you think this works?”

“Put it on.”

Nicole took off the black band and replaced it with the new silver one. She pulled her hair over it and looked at Kyle. “Nothing.”

“Give it a moment.” Kyle looked up, “Willow, does Nicole sense any Feeders?”

“She does but they’re not close.”

Suddenly, Nicole’s eyes flew wide open, “I can see them!”

“Where are they?”

“There’s two ships at a planet several light years from here.”

Willow, can you see what she’s seeing?”

“I can.”

“Is it possible to get a light signature from her thoughts?”

“I’ll send the image to Amber. Give us a few moments.”

“Nicole, try to keep that image in your mind.”

“As if I have a choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“It appears that if I sense them, I can see them. I wonder if there’s a way to turn this thing off.”

Kyle looked in the box and saw a piece of paper in the bottom. He took it out and read it as Nicole looked around. “Did you notice a section of the band when you put it on that was a slightly different shade than the rest of it?” She started to take the band off and Kyle said, “Wait until we see if Amber can get a signature!” Nicole lowered her hands and waited.

“Kyle, I think I have a signature. We’re going to have to try it to see if this works.”

“Give us a moment.” Kyle looked at Nicole and she removed the band from her head.

“There is a section that’s not shiny like the rest of the band.”

“Put that section on the back of your head.”

Nicole manipulated the band and put it back on her head, “The image is gone.”

“Do you have to take it off to move it?”

Nicole gripped the silver head band and pulled it. The band slid around her head and she smiled, “I can see them again. The view improves the more I move it around.”

“Let’s go see if the signature is good.” Nicole walked off the small landing bay and Kyle followed her. They arrived on the bridge and Kyle looked up, “Amber, Nicole is getting a better image.”

“Willow, send it to me.” Kyle looked at Nicole and smiled. She shrugged and Amber said, “I’m glad we didn’t use the first signature. It would have been way off.”

“How are you doing this?”

“Willow is converting your thought image into electronic pulses. I use those pulses to get a reading. I think this will work.”

Kyle thought for a moment, “Is there a moon around that planet?”

“There’s one on the edge of the image Nicole is seeing.”

“Use that as the target.”

“That’s a good idea. Give me a moment…got it.”

“Set the drive for a hundred miles above the moon’s surface.”

“Done.”

“Alright, skipping…now!”

The view on the monitor instantly changed from the destroyed planet to the ragged surface of a moon. The view swung around and two large Feeder Warships appeared in orbit above the brown and blue planet. “How do they not detect our antenna?”

Kyle continued to stare at the monitor and said, “The ball on the end of it is the size of a grain of sand. If scanners were set to see anything that small, the system would be overwhelmed with all the granules and dust motes floating around in space. It’s also a passive device that doesn’t emit electronic waves.” Kyle looked up, “Willow, are you hearing anything?”

Nicole spun the band around and the image disappeared in her mind. “It appears the conquest of this planet has been pretty much completed. They’re waiting for the occupation forces to arrive.”

“Where are they coming from?”

“I have no idea.”

“We’re going to wait and see if we can track them back to their origin.”

“This does confirm that they leave ships behind at the planets they conquer.”

Kyle nodded and leaned back in his chair, “Wake me up when they arrive.” He activated the sleep circuitry and closed his eyes. Nicole sighed and joined him in sleep.

Amber saw they were asleep and said, “Willow, I would have thought the occupation forces would be coming from this fleet.”

“It appears they aren’t, Amber. That must mean there are population pressures elsewhere.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It isn’t.”

“I
t’s time to wake up.”

Kyle’s eyes opened and he raised his chair out of the recline position. He looked at his monitor and saw two large transports moving into orbit above the conquered planet. “What’s going on?”

“The transports just came out of the void and are moving into low orbit. I’m going to play their communications over the wall speaker.”

“Thank you, Willow.”

• • •

“Have you made the assignments?”

“I have. I’m going to have to make one more trip to have enough for the communities on the western continent.”

“Why didn’t you bring them on this trip?”

“The planets providing the ones on this trip are located directly away from here. It would take less time to drop these off and go get the others who are located in the opposite direction. The first Eaters can go ahead and start getting their territories under control while I pick up the others.”

“Well, get moving. I need to get my ship out of here and gather provisions for the next target. I’m expecting most of them to come from the new Eater’s communities.”

“I’m sending the shuttles down now. Are the locals under control?”

“For the most part; the ground forces have removed most of the trouble makers. The Eaters will do a closer examination of the beings under their rule. We’re on schedule, you keep yours.”

“I will, Ship Leader.”

• • •

Hundreds of shuttles began launching from the two transports and dropped quickly toward the planet’s surface. Kyle looked up from his monitor, “What are they doing, Amber?”

“It appears each shuttle is stopping at a small community and dropping off a Death Feeder. It then moves to another settlement and drops off another one.”

“They’re organizing this planet the same way they did on my world.” Kyle looked at Nicole and nodded.

“Willow, what does this seem to indicate?”

“The Feeders reproduction rate appears to be putting more of them on planets they’ve conquered than the local populations can support. The surplus Feeders are being collected and moved to newly conquered planets.”

“What does that tell us about how extensive they are?”

“It’s not good news. Keep in mind that thousands of civilizations have been conquered in this galaxy and it appears they’re needed to feed the Feeder’s surplus populations. That transport is going to collect more of them; we should follow it and see what we can find out.”

Kyle stared at the monitor as shuttles flew back and forth to the transports. “Amber, put an image of a Death Feeder on my monitor.” The view changed and Kyle saw one of the Feeders from Nicole’s planet appear. It stood about five and a half feet tall and was wearing a purple robe that matched its skin color. The hands that hung out of the sleeves had a long claw on its index fingers. It had the thumb and four other fingers curled up showing only the two long claws. Kyle enlarged the Feeder’s head and stared at it. The eye in the center of the face was deep purple in color and it was lidless. There were two narrow vertical slits just below the eye that must be the being’s nostrils. “Amber, do you have any idea about their sense of smell?”

“No, not really.”

“Take a guess.”

“I suspect they don’t have a sense of smell or a very limited one.”

What leads you to believe that?”

“Those two slits don’t appear to funnel air into a smaller chamber. It looks like they send air directly into the organs they use as lungs.”

“I agree with Amber, Kyle. The Death Feeders appear to have no discomfort around dead bodies, which would indicate they don’t smell them. They use their minds to do all their sensing so a good sense of smell would not serve a purpose.”

“What about their brain, Willow? The head is shaped like a pumpkin on a narrow neck.”

“Hensel killed one that was attempting to kill his father. He mentioned to the current High Leader before he died that the Feeder’s entire head was filled with its brain. All of its sensory systems originate with its telepathic ability.”

“I notice it doesn’t have a mouth.”

“It feeds on the nerves in other being’s minds; what purpose would a mouth serve? It communicates, eats, hears, sees, and senses others with its mind. I suspect that’s why it only has one eye, two is more than it would need.”