“Well, not really. I’m just husky.”
“And Buddha was big boned. However, let’s agree to not play word games. As I was saying, your size surprised me and the fact you’re wearing glasses violates every rule for a ship’s pilot. I determined at that point that I had made a good choice to request this assignment.”
Arvolo just stared at Kenny.
“I went through the Fleet’s tests for all of its Ship’s Commanders and looked for the pilot with the highest flight scores. You are here because of your ability to fly a starship. Anyone else would have been drummed out of the service months ago with the number of times you’ve been put in the brig. I have a wife and daughter and I want to make sure I have a good chance of seeing my daughter grow up. I may not like your style but I know I can’t find a better pilot. I do hope you’ll behave and not force me to go to another ship.”
Arvolo continued to stare at Kenny and after a long moment said, “Rule number one; you can call me whatever you want but you may never say anything bad about Cuba.”
Kenny tilted his head and nodded.
“Rule number two; if my wife ever calls, you haven’t seen me.”
Kenny narrowed his eyes, “Is that a problem?”
“I told her four years ago I was going to the store and I never went back.”
“Has she called?”
“Not yet, but she might miss me one day and call.”
“Captain, I think you’re safe.”
Arvolo looked around and whispered, “You never know.”
Kenny nodded again and when Arvolo turned around he shook his head. Here was a man that had kicked the crap out of six marines, yet he was afraid of a woman. Kenny decided that he had to meet her one day. It was clear Arvolo didn’t share that wish. Well, with only two rules, life should be simple. Kenny would later discover that life was never simple with the large Cuban.
* * *
Jeff pushed his communication panel and saw Bob’s face appear, “Good morning, Sir.”
“Good morning, Admiral Owens. How are the Fleet exercises progressing?”
“They are making great progress, Sir.”
“Bob, drop the Sir. You’re an Admiral just like I am.”
Bob smiled, “No, I have fewer stars.”
Jeff smiled at his old friend, “I want to start combat operations soon and I need you to select a ship to make the initial attack.”
“I think I have just the ship.”
“Which one?”
“The Havana.”
Jeff sighed and Bob interrupted him before he could respond, “I know the history of Captain Arvolo but his ship won the competition.”
“Really?”
“Wasn’t even close; he may have a lot of aggression issues but he is talented.”
Jeff stared at Bob and nodded, “We’ll see how it goes. I think aggression is just what’s called for in this initial confrontation. I’ll let you know when we’re ready.”
Jeff ended the call and smiled. Maybe Anders would make the difference in making the Havana all it was capable of becoming. He was surprised when Kenny had declined an Admiral’s rank in the support section to be a Weapon’s officer. He was forced to approve the assignment to the Havana figuring that the crazy Cuban would get him to reconsider. Why did he select that ship? He made a note to follow up. There must be something about the Cuban he was missing.
* * *
The Moet Prince waited in the reception chamber of the First Master. He had sent the video of the Blue Ships before he arrived and was directed to report for an audience with the Supreme Ruler of the Moet. He thought about the strange ships sharing information about the Blue Ships and declaring that they were not an enemy of his. What a strange thought. He looked up and saw the First Master enter. He stood and lowered his eye stalks.
“Do you believe this information you sent?”
“Yes, I do. I ordered a ship to go and see if the energy trails were still present where they were seen and they are. The trails are massive and number in the millions.”
“I’m ordering an immediate evacuation of our planets. You need to get the planets you’re responsible for organized for the move.” She paused and then said, “I’m concerned about this new civilization that destroyed half your fleet. I’m not comfortable with their sudden development.”
“They said they were not our enemy.”
She tossed two eyestalks back and laughed, “So do they all.”
“Yes, but they could have destroyed my fleet and withheld the video they gave us. That is not normal behavior.”
She shrugged, “Even so, they must be destroyed.”
“I promised to communicate with them before we attacked again.”
“You know that promise is meaningless. Why did you make it?”
“I’m not sure. They just, I don’t know, seemed to be telling the truth.”
“Son, you have so much to learn.”
“You must be patient with me, Mother.”
She looked at him, “What would you do if you had to make a decision about them?”
“I’d just leave them alone.”
“Why?”
“If the Blue Ships are really searching for them, they will be found and destroyed. We don’t need to lose any more ships trying to do it ourselves.”
She thought about the idea and gave her affirmation, “You may not need as much experience as I thought. That is a good idea and we will not go back. Now notify all the Family Masters and get the planets organized for evacuation. Have you determined which of your citizens will be left behind?”
“The standings are always up for public viewing.”
“Good.”
“They’re coming back sooner than they ever have, Mother.”
“You can’t blame them. I’d have been here long ago if I was in their position.”
“Are the evacuation planets still available?”
“Most of the structures have fallen into ruin but they can be rebuilt quickly enough.”
“Why don’t we just stay there instead of coming back here to face these invasions?”
“It’s more dangerous there than here. We’re there for so short a time that we’re not usually discovered by the really dangerous Killers. Let’s hope our luck holds out and we can get in and get back here after the Blue Ships leave.”
“Thank you for your Wisdom, Mother.”
“That’s what I’m here to provide, Son.”
Chapter Two
“J
illian, I’m activating the emitters.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Chris extended the fields and entered the data collected from the scan of the dead planet’s atmosphere. The fields expanded at light speed and after ten minutes an alarm sounded. Chris stopped the expansion and moved the ship towards the location of the strongest signal. He focused in on the signal and a planet appeared on his display. Chris was stunned. There were thousands of Moet ships surrounding the planet. Jillian came in smelling of a shower and Chris leaned back as she kissed him. She looked over his shoulder and said, “Oh my! That planet must be one of their major commerce centers.”
“I think you’re right. According to my computer only about a fifth of those ships are warships. This planet was thriving fifty million years ago.”
“Take us closer to the planet.”
The planet grew quickly on the display and they saw huge cities on the surface. “Chris, there was no evidence of cities on that planet when we scanned it.”
“Something must have happened a long time ago for all the evidence to disappear. You’re the Egyptologist. How long would it take for climate alone to erase the evidence of a city that size?”
“Climate alone couldn’t do it. Those buildings are tall and there would be evidence of them millions of years after they were built. Something radical had to happen for them to completely disappear.”
“Well, I think it’s safe to say that the Moet Civilization was flourishing at this particular moment in time. There’s ships coming and going and there must be other planets trading with this one.” Chris reached forward and adjusted his board. “Alright, I’ve locked this line in and I’m going to start jumping forward until we see something different.”
“How far are you going to jump?”
“I think a million years for each jump. If something happens we’ll jump back out.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
“They jumped three times and saw no real difference in the planet. The numbers of ships changed slightly but everything else looked normal. On the fourth jump they saw many of the cities had been hit with nuclear blasts, “We need to back up and see what happened.”
Chris jumped back five hundred thousand years and the city was back to normal. “I’m going to start jumping at ten thousand year intervals and set the computer to stop us when it detects radiation on the surface.”
“You’re the boss.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
Jillian popped him on the back of his head with her hand and he started the jumps. On the forty third jump they stopped and saw huge areas of devastation on the planet. “Chris, that must have happened recently.”
“Judging from the radiation level it should have happened within the last hundred years. I’m backing out a hundred years and then I’ll start jumping in five year increments.”
Chris kept his hand on the jump board and watched his display. After eight jumps he punched the stop pad. They saw cities burning. “I’m backing out a month and start moving forward at high speed.”
Jillian watched closely as they moved forward in time. Chris had backed the view up and suddenly he slowed down. Hundreds of ships were moving towards the planet. Chris, those ships look familiar.”
“They’re Jenze.”
“You’re right. They’re the same color as the one destroyed on Earth just before the asteroid impact.”
They watched as the Jenze fleet attacked the ships at the planet and destroyed them all. The ships then moved in orbit around the planet and dropped nuclear bombs on most of the population centers. The devastation was horrific. Millions of Moet were killed in the nuclear fires scorching the planet’s surface. Soon the atmosphere was full of dark clouds of smoke that rose from the blasts and fanned out over huge areas. The Jenze ships stayed in orbit for ten more hours and then turned and left the planet.
“Chris, this is terrible. The Moet were right to fear the Jenze.”
“We need to move forward and see if this is an isolated event or part of a much larger destruction.”
“How will you be able to tell?”
“If no ships come to assist the planet then that would indicate that other planets have been attacked along with this one.” The view moved into high speed and no ships appeared.
“How long has it been?”
“More than a week.”
“What do we do now?”
“We’ll continue jumping forward in million year increments and see what happens.”
They jumped a million years and the planet was once more a thriving world with thousands of ships around it. They continued jumping and after eight more jumps the world was destroyed again. They repeated the process and watched another fleet moving in on the planet.
“Those are not Jenze ships.”
“No, they aren’t.”
“Where do you think they came from?”
“I have no idea but we know what’s going to happen. Let’s continue jumping forward.”
They jumped forward and watched the planet destroyed six more times until they arrived at light from two million years from the present. Then they saw that no life remained on the planet and all the huge cities were blasted and burned into rubble. They jumped back and moved forward and found a huge Blue Ship moving in on the planet. “Chris, move the view in closer to the planet.”
The planet grew in the display and Jillian pointed at the largest city, “There’s not enough Moet.”
“What do you mean?”
“The cities have always been crowded with large masses of Moet moving around. There are less than a third of those normally seen.”
“I’m backing out a year to see what caused the rapid loss of population.” They broke back into normal space and saw ten giant ships above the planet receiving thousands of shuttles. “They’re moving their population.”
“Yes they are but not all of them. They’ve left enough behind so that the Blue Ships will think they’ve destroyed them all.”
“They’re not fighting any more. They’re running.”
Jillian nodded, “They’ve left enough population and ships to deceive the Blue Giants. The ones left behind have been given a death sentence. It appears the Blue Giants leave no survivors.”
Chris thought a moment, took a deep breath, and blew it out slowly, “They must have been warned of the coming attack and decided that the only way to survive was to run. I think we now know why this planet is still dead in our time. Let’s go see what happens when the Blue Ship attacks.”
Chris and Jillian watched as the Giant Blue Ship arrived in orbit and began firing hundred of beams at the planet’s surface, blasting everything into huge burning mounds of rubble. The twenty mile wide beam was swept over the huge cities like a broom sweeping a dirty floor. The beam swept across the city and was swept back to ensure everything was destroyed. The tall buildings had exploded and then melted. It made an orbit around the planet and hit everything including forests that had no population. Nothing was left behind for anyone to use for rebuilding. Once the orbit was complete the giant ship must have scanned the surface for anything it missed and began another orbit hitting those areas on the surface. Nothing was left alive on any of the land masses and everything was burning.
“This must be after the Blue Ships completed the conquest of their galaxy.”
“I’m not sure how you arrived at that conclusion, Chris.”
“We know they come from the Andromeda Galaxy and that we are the closest galaxy to them in the Virgo Cluster. It appears they are going to insure their safety by destroying any civilization that could one day come and place them in danger. If they were still attacking civilizations in their own galaxy, they wouldn’t come here until they handled that issue.”
“Are you saying they have killed every other civilization in their galaxy?”
“I’m reasonably certain they didn’t learn to clean all life off a planet here. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on them being the only civilization in Andromeda.”
“Maybe there are population pressures that brought them here.”