Defending Earth-Searching for Death Feeders (35 page)

They swapped piloting the ship on the voyage in toward the core. He listened to the Feeders while he was on duty and began to understand just how dangerous this species was. Many of the thoughts he heard were of Feeders consuming intelligent beings they had brought on board their ships. He soon diverted his attention and listened for the beings at the Feeder’s main planets. It took ten days before he heard the one he heard before. He sent an impulse to Brittany’s armor and she immediately woke. He pointed out the viewport and then to his ear. She nodded and listened.

“Prime Leader, a message probe has just arrived from the fleet you sent to investigate the planet of telepaths that was being attacked.”

“Why would they send a message probe?”

“It appears something has happened to the fleet we sent.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve converted the mechanical recording to a thought message. I’m going to play it now.”

• • •

“Prime Leader, I’ve arrived at the planet being attacked and there is no trace of the fleet that was here. I moved into orbit above the planet to investigate and to also determine what was causing a massive telepathic pattern that was emanating from the planet. The pattern my Sensor Leader detected was unlike any we’ve ever encountered. It was extremely powerful but it didn’t seem to make any sense. The thoughts were…unintelligible. I discovered that the pattern was being created by some form of primitive sea life. A ship was sent down to take a closer look and it appears that there is a primitive species of fish that is telepathic.”

The Prime Leader stopped the recording, “What is this nonsense?”

“You should continue listening, Prime Leader.”

Poncho looked at Brittany and smiled. She nodded and continued to listen.

“Prime Leader, all of the ships in my fleet have been affected by contact with those fish. Even the non-telepathic members of our crews have been infected with some sort of mental disease. We’ve been forced to kill them when they started doing irrational things like crashing their ships into the planet’s oceans. I have also been infected with this disease and I’m in agony and don’t know how much longer I can endure it. It appears this infection is spread by making mental contact with any one not infected. Every one of us on all our ships have been infected and our ships have started destroying each other to end the mental agony. I have issued orders that no ship will leave here; I fear that if one tried to return, it would infect all those it came into contact with. I am ordering all ships to fire on each other and I’ve just armed the self-destruct circuit on my vessel. I am the last one alive and I’m not capable of working the blasters. Do not come here! The Feeder making the recording screamed a wretched cry that disappeared in the middle.

“Have you confirmed this?”

“I sent an unmanned probe and it recorded hundreds of thousands of our ships in orbit above the planet. They were all blasted and the probe shows that the destruction was done by our blasters. There were also hundreds of thousands of ships on the surface of the planet that had crashed. The probe also recorded a halo of thought patterns around the planet that extended more than three thousand miles into space around it.”

“What about the population on the planet?”

“There was no one there. All the buildings were still standing but it looked like every intelligent being had disappeared.”

“Where could they have gone?”

“The recording says that our ships were being crashed into the ocean. Those fish may have the power to mentally pull their prey to them. It might be possible that the local inhabitants had a way to block the thoughts of those fish and our attacking fleet destroyed it during their attack. They might have all walked into the ocean at the call of those fish. Should I send another ship to determine if these fish could do it?”

The Prime Leader almost did exactly that but said, “Send me the probe’s data.”

“It’s being sent now.”

After ten minutes the Prime Leader said, “The evidence supports what you’ve surmised. However, I don’t think we have all the information we need to know for sure.” There was a long pause and then the Prime said, “However, I’m not willing to risk sending another ship to that planet. Contact all our scout fleets and order them away from that sector.”

“But Great Leader, those fish may only be on that planet.”

“Then send probes into that galaxy and see if that pattern appears above another planet. Let me know what you discover.”

• • •

Poncho looked at Brittany and stood up. She moved to the pilot’s chair and he activated his sleep module. They were getting closer to the core and he knew sleep would be limited soon.

• • •

Four days later, Brittany woke Poncho. He opened his eyes and heard, “If those fish exist on another planet, then it’s possible that the species is other places as well. That sector is off limits to any of our scouting fleets.”

“What about the other clusters in that sector.”

“I SAID THAT SECTOR WAS OFF LIMITS!!”

“Yes, Great Leader, I’ll issue the orders.”

Poncho looked at Brittany and wrote on his tablet which immediately transferred to hers, “One approach is now closed.” Brittany looked at her tablet and then turned to Poncho and nodded. She put her hands together beside her helmet and he nodded and reactivated his sleep module. Six more days to the core.

• • •

The Light Ship hung in the barrier at the edge of a huge planetary system. There were twenty-five planets orbiting the distant star with two of them located in the habitation zone. Poncho stared at his display and shook his head. He was amazed that the two planets were sharing an orbit around the star. That was not something that happened very often. The Alliance had found only one other star where two planets shared an orbit and they were not in the habitation zone. These planets were also larger than Earth and had more than two times Earth’s mass. That explained the strength of the Feeders. They originated on planets with heavier gravity. He sensed the thought pattern of the Feeder Entity and had felt it long before they arrived at this system. The system was surrounded by hundreds of Death Feeder Fleets. But it appeared none of them were inside the outer edge of the system. He wondered why and looked at Brittany as he wrote the question on his tablet. She read it and began writing. Poncho saw her answer start appearing on his tablet, “That many Feeders, who are not part of the link, might disrupt the harmony of the Leader’s Connections.”

Poncho looked up and nodded. He pointed toward the wall monitor showing the planetary system and then pointed at the drive module. She immediately understood that he was going to enter the planetary system. She lifted the covers off the failsafe and self-destruct buttons on her chair’s arm and nodded. He shrugged and turned back to his console. He pushed the slide controlling the compressed air tanks and the small warship moved smoothly forward. Poncho worked his way around several Feeder Warship and passed the outer edge of the planetary system. Poncho began the long trip into the system at one third the speed of light. It would take two days to arrive at the closest inhabited planet. Both of them could hear the Feeder Entity handling thousands of issues every minute as the vast Feeder Empire sent questions that only their leaders could answer. The entity’s thoughts grew louder as they moved away from the millions of Feeder Warships outside the system and drew closer to the large blue and brown planet.

As they moved down on the giant planetary system, the Feeder World they targeted began to grow on their monitors. Both of them were awake; neither of them were going to sleep before they either died or managed to escape. They moved within three hundred thousand miles of the planet and Poncho stopped the ship. Brittany’s eyes narrowed and he pointed at his ear. She tilted her head wondering what he was trying to tell her but then noticed that all the thoughts that were emanating from the planet had stopped. She focused on Poncho. If that Entity took his mind, she was going to push the self-destruct button. Suddenly, both of them felt a massive thought wave move over them. She almost pushed the button but saw Poncho shaking his head. She took her finger off the button and felt the sweat start on her brow. Both of them waited and after three more thought waves passed them, they heard, “I KNOW YOU’RE HERE.” They remained silent. “I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU MANAGED TO GET BY MY DEFENSES BUT YOU SHOULD SURRENDER. YOUR DEATHS WILL BE QUICK IF YOU DO.”

Poncho quickly wrote on his tablet, “It doesn’t know where we are!”

Brittany nodded and wrote, “But it does sense our presence.” Poncho nodded and focused on the outer edges of the planetary system. The millions of Feeder Warships had begun moving in toward the planet. He could hear them linking up to form a huge globe around the planetary system and begin accelerating toward the two inhabited planet scanning space in front of them. Poncho’s eyes narrowed and saw Brittany writing on her tablet, “They will not see us in the barrier.”

Poncho stared at her and after a moment wrote, “I wouldn’t bet the farm on that. Keep your finger on the failsafe. It doesn’t appear that entity can detect our minds enough to get a location. We should be able to escape.”

Brittany nodded and wrote, “The thought pattern that’s scanning for us is getting stronger. I suspect those warships are being linked in with the Leader’s linkage.” Poncho’s eyes narrowed and he felt the thought pattern blow over them at a much higher speed. He looked at Brittany and she knew what he was thinking. She focused on his mind. They weren’t out of the woods…yet. Poncho used the compressed air tanks to turn the small ship around so the rear was pointed toward the planet. Brittany wrote, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Poncho began writing, “Program a nuclear missile to target the largest city on the planet below us.” Brittany shook her head hard. “Do it!”

She mouthed toward him, “WHY!” She refused to look in his mind this close to the Entity.

Poncho wrote, “I’m going to engage this creature in a conversation in a moment and I want to leave a message it will understand.” Brittany stared at him with shock on her face and he smiled as he wrote, “We have to see if we are truly mentally invisible to this being. If the thought pattern rushes up on us and stops, hit the eject button on the missile and hit the failsafe.”

Brittany stared at him and turned to her panel. She activated the low power missile launcher and began typing in instructions. After a moment, she turned, looked at him, and nodded. Both of them sensed the giant globe of Feeder Warships moving closer and in less than thirty minutes, it would be at their location. Brittany looked at Poncho and he held up his hand. She knew she would have fired the missile and run. His bravery was incredible and she was going to follow his lead on this.

The giant globe of warships moved up until it was even with their position…and then it passed. Poncho wrote, “Did you program the missile to evade?” Brittany nodded. Poncho smiled and thought…”

• • •

The Feeder Entity was beyond rage. It felt another being but couldn’t determine where it was located. It sent a search pattern out at incredible speed and power but nothing was detected. He could sense them but not find them. It was frustrated and getting angrier by the moment. Then it heard, “I think that you should surrender.” The Entity flashed out its thought pattern in the direction it sensed the thought had originated but came up empty.

Brittany had her finger on the failsafe and she almost pushed it but the Entity’s search pattern had passed over them. She was on edge and wondered how she had managed not to push the button.

“JUST WHY DO YOU THINK I SHOULD SURRENDER?”

“You’re an inferior species. You’ve had your way with other civilizations and we’ve thought about removing you from existence. However, you’re really not worth the effort. Just be aware that if you move into my domain, we will eradicate you.” Brittany felt the thought pattern pass them more than a hundred times without pausing.”

“IF YOU COULD DO IT, YOU WOULD HAVE ALREADY DONE IT!”

Poncho laughed mentally and thought, “I was sent here to determine if we should destroy you. However, you don’t represent a danger to us. So go and live your lives…just don’t move anywhere near our Realm.” Poncho looked at Brittany and nodded. Brittany pressed the failsafe button and three things happened instantly. The nuclear missile ejected from the ship and used its small light drive to skip into the atmosphere above the giant city on the planet’s northern continent, where it ignited its thrusters and shot down toward the surface.

The failsafe activated and the ship’s reactors came to full power, activated the light drive, and the Light Ship skipped away as a small probe accelerated away from it. The probe moved through the void at an incredible speed but kept its scanner on the planet as it moved away. It recorded the giant city on the surface go up in a massive nuclear blast. The millions of Feeder Warships around the planet turned and accelerated after the probe. The probe’s drive field was huge and it appeared to be the size of a medium vessel.

Twenty million Feeder Leaders were incinerated by the nuclear blast and the Entity was blown apart by the sudden death of that many Feeders that made it. It took an hour before it could reconstitute itself. It was forced to use the Feeders in the Fleets to do it and would have to maintain that link until new leaders could be chosen to replace those that died. It saw the Fleets chasing that vessel in the void and was furious that it hadn’t left any ships outside the system to intercept it. It tracked the probe’s course and saw it veer slightly when it exited the planetary system; it suddenly disappeared. It pulled up star maps from one of the facilities on the planet and extended the course of the tiny vessel out into the universe. There were thousands of galactic clusters on that line. Which one had that ship come from?

“ALL SCOUT FLEETS WILL RETURN TO MY CENTRAL PLANET AND PREPARE TO START SEARCH OPERATIONS. ALL MAJOR FLEETS THAT HAVE COMPLETED THEIR CURRENT MISSIONS WILL ALSO RETURN TO JOIN IN THE SEARCH. DO NOT START ATTACKING ANOTHER GALAXY!!”