Nowhere to Run (33 page)

Dee noticed her communicator was active and she said, “Actually, he didn’t.”

The Sovereign looked startled, “What do you mean? He and all his ships were evidently destroyed. We scanned his ships and saw they didn’t take the path of the other ships in the first invasion but none of his fleet has been seen since.”

“No they weren’t; he and his ships did not participate in the attack against us. He jumped his ships to the first galaxy you invaded and he’s there now solidifying his position.” It was good the conference was muted because all the faces on the channel were screaming at the disrespect being shown to a leader that had given his life for the galaxy’s safety. They did not believe the accusation.

The Negotiator squealed the frequency and said, “This can be verified easily enough. I’ve designated one of your ships to go and confirm whether this accusation is factual or not.”

The Pental Ruler said, “That still doesn’t answer why you would assist us when we just destroyed thousands of your planets.”

Dee smiled, “All of those planets were uninhabited. We moved the populations off them several years ago. We actually planned for you to destroy them.”

“Why did you allow us to destroy them?”

Dee took a deep breath and said, “Our initial plan was to use them to bait your fleets in and kill as many of your ships as possible but we discovered that one of those alien probes followed your first fleet into our galaxy. We knew that as a result of that we would also be considered as a possible target. By allowing your ships to destroy those fifty thousand planets, we felt that it would reduce the likely hood that the new enemy would come to our galaxy first.” Dee looked at the Sovereign and Gedna and said, “Now you know the whole truth.” She paused and said, “We acted in our own self-interest. The ships sent to your galaxy were just to force you to keep your fleets at your planets and possibly prevent a future invasion. None of them were going to attack your civilizations.”

The Ruler said, “You used us to draw the invader here!” Once again the conference was disrupted with screams and shouting.

The Negotiator sounded the squeal at high volume and all the attendee’s covered their hearing apparatus. The Negotiator said, “You amaze me. Are all of you so asinine to believe that the Spiral Galaxy owes you anything other than a genuine hope that you’ll all be destroyed? You invaded them twice with the intention of killing all of them. Now you act like they did something wrong. You just can’t be that stupid! Quite frankly, I think it was a stroke of genius. And don’t try to act like you wouldn’t have done the same thing if given the opportunity.”

The Pental Ruler looked at Dee and said, “Then why did you come to warn us?”

“The Green and Grey Civilizations have been, except for one instance, honorable in their dealings with us. We came to try and prevent their destruction. They decided to bring the rest of you in on the conversation. The Negotiator is right; we really don’t care if the rest of you are destroyed. Killing my people has been your highest priority and we don’t take that very well. You can all go pound sand as far as we’re concerned but we felt the Greens and Greys deserved to know.”

Suddenly a voice interrupted the conference, “The Orange Leader and his ships are in the first galaxy we invaded. His ships attacked me when we arrived. He has taken control of all the planets we occupied in the first invasion.”

Silence descended on the conference and all of the civilizations knew the beings they had attacked were telling the truth. That realization struck home and they knew if an invasion was coming; all of them were in jeopardy. Dee said, “I’d like to say we did this solely out of honor and all the good things beings are capable of doing but that’s not the whole truth.” She looked at the Sovereign and said, “The more punishment you can dish out to this new enemy, the better chance we have of surviving them. It wasn’t totally done out of friendship. Obviously, we hope you can reduce their numbers before they turn their attention to us.” The Sovereign slowly nodded and Dee said, “We are going home and we do hope you can all forget your differences and come together on this. We do hope you survive. I also hope you recognize that we are not the problem you need to focus on; they are coming here.”

The Sovereign and Gedna watched the small ship disappear.

The Pental Ruler looked at the Sovereign, “Do you know how many ships they had to use against us when we invaded those planets?”

“They have millions and you should know that twenty of our major warships couldn’t break through the force field of that small ship that came here. They could have destroyed all of your ships but chose to allow you to escape instead.”

The Pental Ruler lowered his head and said, “If that is true, then you need to be the one directing our forces against the invasion.”

“Why?”

“First, that being was right. We can no longer fight against each other; we have to unite to survive. Second, your ships and the Greys are some of the most powerful in our galaxy. I’m also hoping that you might be able to persuade that other galaxy to join us in the fight. I suspect no one else could. They view us as adversaries. “

The Sovereign stared at the red colored being and said, “I will agree to do it but only if you will be my Second-in-Command.”

“Why would you want that? We’ve been enemies for centuries. You should select someone else.”

“If you and I can come together to fight for our galaxy, then everyone else should be able to do it as well. We have to forget our differences if we are going to work together. The time of borders and disagreements is over; we have to combine our forces.”

The Pental Ruler nodded and said, “Negotiator, I call for a vote on this and request that you tell us the result.” The following vote was unanimous. The Negotiator began to believe there might be hope for them…but he doubted it. He really hoped they would prove him wrong.

• • •

The Father looked at his order of targets and needed a ship count in the Green Civilization. He pressed his panel and said, “I need you to move one of the probes to the Green Civilization and have it get a current ship count.”

He went back to work and several minutes later he saw his panel illuminate, “Yes.”

“I have been unable to get any of the probes to respond to orders.”

The Father leaned back in his chair, “None of them?”

“None of them are responding.”

“Launch ten more.”

“Yes Father.”

• • •

A hundred of the most powerful ships in M87 waited at the edge of the galaxy. Their subspace scanners were the best they had been on station since the vote to fight together. A large white ship said over their communication frequency, “Here they come; it appears there are ten of them. Four of you go with each of them and remove them.”

Warships were scattered around the edge of M87 closest to the line of the distant galaxy where the enemy was located. All ten probes were followed and destroyed. A ship would bump them into normal space and the others instantly fired. None were able to get a message out.

• • •

“Father, it appears all of the new probes have been destroyed.”

“Are you sure?”

“They stopped responding before they took any scans.”

“Send this information to Grandfather.”

“Yes Father.”

The almond colored being thought a moment and grew angry; he took his arm and swept all the plans he had been working on off his desk. They scattered across the floor of his office in total disarray. They were no longer any good. They all depended on the element of surprise. He heard a knock and looked up, “Father?” He looked at his son, “The probe in the other smaller galaxy has also stopped responding.”

The Father stared at his son and said, “Send that to the Grandfathers as well.” His son nodded and closed the door behind him. The Father reflected and looked out the viewport at the planet being attacked below. The giant galaxy knew they were coming. That was going to change everything. They had evidently gone to the other galaxy and destroyed that probe to make sure it was available for their conquest at a later time. This made the planning for the next harvest much more dangerous; especially with the numbers of civilizations in that giant galaxy. It might even prevent the next harvest from happening there. He thought about it and decided that it wouldn’t prevent it. That galaxy would ultimately encounter one of the families and it needed to be removed as a future threat to the clans. He knew his family would be one of those charged with eliminating it. He didn’t like that thought at all.

• • •

Cole looked at Ian and said, “Argel helped a lot with this.”

Ian and Drey were still shaking their heads, “What made you think of this?”

“I thought about the planet you blasted in M87 and it occurred to me that the beam didn’t lose any destructive power from ten thousand miles. That is significant.”

“But it used the entire collector to fire it.”

“The collectors can be replenished if the ship is being fired on. You also won’t use the entire collector in a fleet action. The targets will be much smaller than a planet.”

Ian nodded and looked back at the display where a hundred ships were burning. The older model vessels were Union and Kilper warships but none of them survived the one beam. Their force fields didn’t slow it in any measureable way. Drey said, “How long will it take to update the fleet?”

“This is done with a revolving lens. The lens is being manufactured at a high speed assembly line on Euclid and another has just started production on Kilper. We should have the new force fields and beams in place in less than eighteen months.”

Dee looked away from the display, “You need to speed it up.”

Ian and Drey looked at her, “Do you sense something?”

“I’m not sure but the destruction of the probe here might lead to some problems; they may come and investigate.”

Ian shook his head, “I wondered if we should have done that.”

“If you didn’t, the probe would learn about our new ships. Damned if you do…”

Cole said, “What has the King and First Councilor decided about fighting in M87?”

“The jury is still out but the Kilper Admiral supports doing it.”

Dee looked startled, “Why!?!”

Ian looked at Dee and narrowed his eyes, “Why does that bother you so much?”

“He’s like me. He sees things. He must be seeing something I’m missing.”

Drey looked at Ian, “You might want to ask him?”

“I did.”

“And?”

“He says that it’s hard to fire on one of our planets from that far away.”

Dee smiled and said, “He makes a good point.”

Drey looked at the burning ships and said, “A civilization that lives in ships has one advantage.”

“What is that?”

“They can always run. For those of us that live on planets, we have nowhere to run.”

“Let’s hope we can chase them out to the stars in another galaxy.”

“That’s another thing, Ian.”

“What is that Dee?

“With the new scanners we’ve seen, we’re finding, there’s nowhere to hide either.”

Ian could only nod.

• • •

The next day Drey and Dee were sitting on board Doc watching the newest fleet going through maneuvers. The fleets would have to be spread out if the new wider beams were employed. They would have to fight without another ship close by for support. Doc watched one of the ships do a remarkable reversal and noted the ship’s transponder. He wanted that pilot in his fleet. Dee turned and looked at Drey, “Do you remember saying you have never won an argument with me.”

Drey looked at her, “I do.”

“You did win our first argument.”

“What was that?”

“You convinced me to fly with you on your ship. I was totally against it.”

Drey thought a moment and slowly nodded, “I’m really glad I won that one.”

Dee smiled and said, “I am as well.” Dee stood and walked over to Drey and sat in his lap. Drey forgot fleet maneuvers and reveled in the feeling of having his wife resting on his chest. Dee closed her eyes and felt peace for the first time in a very long time. She sensed that, for the moment, the Union was safe. Tomorrow’s problems would just have to be faced later. She knew that she did have a place to run; Drey’s arms were the safest place in the universe.

The End

T
he ship that emerged into space above the planet was larger than the capital city on the surface. It extended a force field more than six thousand miles wide above it as thousands of large troop carriers began leaving it and dropped toward the planet below. Twenty thousand warships jumped in and began firing on the giant intruder but all of their most powerful beams were shrugged off. The defenders were not so fortunate. The massive beams began hitting them and most of those hit were vaporized. Thousands of additional warships started jumping in and the thousands of beams being fired at the intruder started targeting small areas on the intruder’s force field. The intruder was forced to reduce the size of its huge force field to prevent its hull from being hit. But it didn’t have to maintain the force field much longer. The troop transports should be in atmosphere shortly.

The Nephew looked up and said, “Father, two small green ships have arrived and our beams are not getting through their force fields.”

“Target them with multiple beams.”

“We’re firing eighty at them now.”

The Father changed his display from the transports to the small green ship and saw it flickering four hundred miles out. It began moving in and he began to feel apprehension. “Target all beams at those ships.”

One of the small green ships was hit with a hundred beams and after twenty seconds exploded. The second continued forward.

Five hundred beams began turning to fire on the small ship but never had the opportunity to lock on the small target. The Green Ship fired a fifty mile wide beam and the giant invader blew up in a massive blast. The defending warships fell on the transports after the giant force field disappeared before they could make it into the planet’s atmosphere. The defender’s beams blew all of them into debris, which became brilliant meteorite shows on the planet below.